What Is Truth? The Definitive Doctrine of Absolute Truth in the Gospel of John - Mark Zhakevich
00:00:00.000 | Well, if you've done any study in the Gospel of John, I hope you immediately notice that
00:00:07.500 | there's a massive difference in the way John presents the concept of truth versus the synoptics.
00:00:14.240 | Statistically, you can find that observation because John focuses on truth 55 times, whereas
00:00:20.620 | the synoptics cumulatively do so 17 times.
00:00:24.080 | So even that statistic alone, 3 to 1 basically, gives you an insight that John is trying to
00:00:28.960 | accomplish something greater than what the synoptics are doing.
00:00:33.900 | That is not to say that the synoptics are not trying to present an untruthful account
00:00:39.400 | about the story of Jesus.
00:00:41.440 | Don't misinterpret me in that way.
00:00:43.320 | They are presenting a truthful account, yet John uniquely, according to scholars, presents
00:00:48.120 | it theologically, whereas the truth statements in the synoptics are more factual statements.
00:00:53.880 | Yes, this statement is true.
00:00:55.960 | Whereas with John, it's a theologically rich presentation.
00:01:00.840 | You can also look at the weight and the value of truth in John beyond statistics.
00:01:04.760 | I messed up on the numbers, let me say it correctly, 55 times versus 18 times.
00:01:08.920 | Let me just correct myself, 55 in John, 18 in the synoptics.
00:01:13.240 | But there's a second way you can identify that John is trying to feature truth, and
00:01:16.880 | that is through the I Am statements.
00:01:18.560 | You know, we have seven of them.
00:01:19.840 | They become valuable and important to the structure and tapestry of John.
00:01:24.840 | Well, one of them is John 14 6, "I am the way and the truth and the life."
00:01:28.440 | So putting that concept into the I Am statement elevates it in its importance and value in
00:01:34.920 | the Gospel of John.
00:01:36.640 | You can see it even appear in some of the strategic narratives, whether it's the introduction
00:01:42.360 | of the light for the very first time in the beginning, verse 9 of chapter 1, talks about
00:01:46.880 | the light and the truth that comes through that light.
00:01:49.960 | John the Baptist, of course, is going to be introduced as the witness, as the first witness
00:01:54.240 | to the light.
00:01:55.240 | But then the story of Nicodemus, truth is at the core of it, regeneration and the focus
00:01:59.840 | of what it takes to actually enter the kingdom of God and be in the kingdom of God.
00:02:04.360 | And Jesus is leaning on the Old Testament to help John understand that.
00:02:08.520 | Or the story of the Samaritan woman, again, a very unique story, not repeated in the synoptic
00:02:12.160 | Gospels, but truth becomes the core of the worship discussion in verses 23 to 25.
00:02:18.360 | Or the story in chapter 8, the Abraham dialogue, and the narrative surrounding that is focused
00:02:23.240 | on truth.
00:02:24.240 | That is the most concentrated passage in the Gospel of John on truth, John chapter 8.
00:02:29.720 | Or you can go into the Upper Room discourse, chapters 14, 13 through 17, again, truth is
00:02:34.320 | at the core of that discussion, we'll look at that in just a little bit.
00:02:38.520 | John 17, one of the most precious and holy passages in Scripture, right, the holy ground
00:02:44.320 | of prayers.
00:02:45.480 | And yet chapter 17, verse 3, immediately says, "This is eternal life, that they may know
00:02:50.200 | you, the only true God."
00:02:53.840 | So now he's introducing God the Father as the true God, multiple times, but chapter
00:02:57.760 | 17 features that at the very beginning.
00:03:00.080 | And of course, next to the last verse in the Gospel of John 21-24, multiple times repeats
00:03:05.160 | this idea that we are looking at a truthful presentation of the story of Jesus.
00:03:12.280 | So Stanley Porter says this, "The Gospel indicates that truth originates in the tripartite
00:03:19.600 | relationship of the Father, Son, and Spirit, and it is realized in truthful relations between
00:03:25.560 | the Son and human beings."
00:03:27.400 | I want to develop that for us this afternoon, that for John, truth is triadic or trinitarian,
00:03:33.880 | whichever tri-word you like to use.
00:03:37.680 | So you've got statistics, you've got strategic locations where truth appears in the Gospel
00:03:43.240 | of John, you also have the purpose for Jesus' coming being tied to the truth.
00:03:49.280 | There's only two places in John where Jesus speaks about why he came.
00:03:53.480 | We know chapter 10, verse 10, "I've come that they may have life," right, and have it abundantly.
00:03:59.780 | And then chapter 17, and some chapter 18 rather, when Jesus is speaking to Pilate in verse
00:04:05.640 | 37, he says, "I am a king, and for this reason I was born, and for this I have come into
00:04:12.640 | the world to testify to the truth.
00:04:16.920 | Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice," and I'll link 10 and 18 in just a minute for
00:04:21.800 | us.
00:04:23.020 | So you've got the presentation statistically, the strategic locations, and then you have
00:04:27.960 | this purpose for why Jesus came being tied to this idea of truthfulness, and as the deliverer,
00:04:36.200 | or as he's called by many, the revealer of the Father, the Father of truth.
00:04:41.760 | But here's a link I want to make for us between chapter 10 and chapter 18 before we get into
00:04:46.720 | some of the specific outline that I want to present to you.
00:04:50.280 | In both chapter 10, and you're going to have to use your Bible, so if you don't have one,
00:04:53.960 | look it up on your phone please.
00:04:55.400 | If you do, we're going to start flipping.
00:04:57.820 | In chapter 10, Jesus is presented as the Good Shepherd, right?
00:05:05.280 | We know that as the Good Shepherd motif, and it's not just the Good Shepherd idea of Jesus
00:05:09.360 | giving compassion and care, and he'll give up his life voluntarily for his sheep.
00:05:13.320 | That is at the core of the theology of this chapter, but you have to understand that Jesus
00:05:19.280 | is picking up a metaphor from the ancient world that was adopted by the monarchs and
00:05:24.880 | the pharaohs and the emperors, where the Good Shepherd was supposed to symbolize care and
00:05:30.840 | compassion, and it was used as a propaganda mechanism in the ancient world.
00:05:35.480 | You have letters going back and forth between the Roman emperor and the pharaohs in Egypt
00:05:39.620 | where the emperor is encouraging the pharaohs to say, "Act like a shepherd to your people."
00:05:44.720 | Now we know what kind of shepherds they were.
00:05:46.280 | They slaughtered them.
00:05:47.760 | There was no love or compassion or care or sacrifice.
00:05:50.760 | Jesus shows up and says, "I'm a Good Shepherd.
00:05:52.900 | I'm going to lay down my life for my sheep."
00:05:55.200 | He says that statement multiple times in chapter 10, as you know.
00:05:58.920 | So undergirding this Good Shepherd motif in the ancient context, you have an understanding
00:06:04.000 | that Jesus isn't simply speaking as a shepherd who leads and provides and protects, but he's
00:06:08.880 | a shepherd who is a royal shepherd, because that was the understanding of that ancient
00:06:13.280 | world.
00:06:14.280 | You can see that in the Old Testament.
00:06:15.600 | David is a shepherd.
00:06:16.600 | He's a king.
00:06:17.600 | God is presented as a shepherd.
00:06:18.600 | He's the King of Israel.
00:06:19.880 | So you've got that even in the Old Testament scripture.
00:06:22.960 | In John 18, if you take a look, in verse 33, as Jesus and Pilate are conversing, they're
00:06:33.560 | in the Praetorium, and then Pilate says, "Are you the King of the Jews?"
00:06:37.280 | So the conversation begins focusing on the royal title or the royal status of Jesus.
00:06:47.180 | And Jesus, of course, asks, "Who's telling you these things?"
00:06:49.680 | And Pilate says, "I'm not a Jew."
00:06:50.960 | Verse 36, "My kingdom is not of this world," is what Jesus responds.
00:06:54.320 | "If my kingdom was of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would
00:06:59.040 | not be handed over to the Jews.
00:07:01.240 | But as it is, my kingdom is not of this world."
00:07:03.200 | And then the famous statement in verse 37, "So you are a king?"
00:07:05.920 | And then Jesus says, "Yes, I am a king."
00:07:08.400 | And then this is the reason I was born.
00:07:10.560 | In all four Gospels, that question is asked, and in all four Gospels, Jesus affirmatively
00:07:15.320 | responds, "Yes, I am a king."
00:07:17.200 | We know the differences in the details between the Passion narrative in each Gospel, the
00:07:20.840 | Resurrection narrative, but this is consistent.
00:07:23.280 | In other words, every Gospel writer is trying to present Jesus as the king, but in the Gospel
00:07:28.760 | of John, it becomes front and center.
00:07:31.200 | Ten references in chapter 18 and 19 in the Passion narrative and the Resurrection narrative
00:07:35.440 | focus on Jesus as the king and the kingdom that he represents.
00:07:39.400 | So now you have to elevate this whole discussion beyond simple truth or beyond the crucifixion
00:07:44.160 | and this, you know, unfair trial.
00:07:46.700 | You have to say, at the core of the discussion is Jesus as the king who is bringing truth
00:07:53.800 | into this world.
00:07:56.120 | Which now, in verse 36, when he says, "My kingdom is not of this world," we're not talking
00:08:01.760 | about what Andrew Lincoln, for example, says, "the cosmic battle."
00:08:06.840 | So now Jesus is trying to create a scene in the mind of Pilate that, "I am a king."
00:08:12.240 | That's a true statement.
00:08:13.240 | I was born for that.
00:08:14.520 | However, we're talking about a cosmic conflict, and at the core of it is the identity of Jesus.
00:08:23.440 | It's God versus the world in that sense, and you can see this develop as you keep looking
00:08:29.000 | into chapter 18 and chapter 19.
00:08:32.280 | So the conversation continues, Pilate sarcastically says in verse 38, "What is truth?"
00:08:39.120 | In verse 4 of chapter 19, he brings Jesus out.
00:08:45.760 | He says, "I don't have any, I can't find any guilt in him."
00:08:49.680 | In verse 5, he says, "Behold the man."
00:08:52.800 | They respond.
00:08:53.800 | In verse 6, "Crucify him, crucify him."
00:08:57.300 | He says, "Take him yourselves and crucify him."
00:08:59.480 | Verse 7, "We have a law.
00:09:01.400 | We don't have the right to crucify him because he makes himself out to be the son of God."
00:09:06.720 | So now you have another indication, and there is something supernatural taking place.
00:09:10.240 | It's not just the kingdom of this world.
00:09:13.640 | Verse 8 says Pilate is even more afraid.
00:09:16.640 | Coming back to Jesus in verse 9, he's trying to figure out his identity, his origin.
00:09:21.320 | Where are you from?
00:09:22.320 | Jesus doesn't answer him.
00:09:25.040 | And then, Pilate says in verse 10, "You don't speak to me."
00:09:29.840 | And the way it's in the Greek, if you have that in front of you, or if you've studied
00:09:32.520 | this before, it's extremely emphatic.
00:09:34.760 | "To me?"
00:09:35.760 | Do you know who I am?
00:09:38.440 | I'm the governor of Judea.
00:09:40.640 | I'm here on the authority of the emperor.
00:09:43.960 | And it was.
00:09:44.960 | Judea was an imperial province, which had protection, and uniqueness, and elevation.
00:09:49.800 | And so there was a direct relationship between the emperor and the governor of Judea, unlike
00:09:54.140 | other Roman provinces, the other 12.
00:09:57.400 | And so Pilate is shocked, and disturbed, and annoyed, I would say, that Jesus refuses to
00:10:03.800 | answer his question.
00:10:05.880 | Verse 11 says it, or verse 10 says, "Do you not know that I have the authority to release
00:10:11.560 | you, and I have the authority to crucify you?"
00:10:13.400 | Twice he says, "I have authority over you.
00:10:15.680 | How dare you not speak back to me and answer my question?"
00:10:19.480 | And Jesus continues this cosmic battle motif in verse 11 and says, "You would have no authority
00:10:25.320 | over me."
00:10:26.320 | Unfortunately, the translators did not say none at all.
00:10:29.880 | That is in the original.
00:10:31.360 | Twice Pilate demands and conveys that, "I have authority over you."
00:10:35.560 | And twice Jesus says, "You would have no authority over me, none at all, unless it came from
00:10:43.080 | above."
00:10:44.660 | So now Jesus elevates this.
00:10:47.520 | We're talking about authority at the gubernatorial level.
00:10:50.780 | We're talking about something different here.
00:10:53.460 | So verse 12 says, "Pilate made efforts," and actually this is an imperfect meaning, "He
00:10:58.760 | needed to figure out a way," just kept thinking about a way, "to release him."
00:11:04.680 | And the Jews are crying out, "If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar."
00:11:09.400 | So now they're elevating this to the next level of authority.
00:11:12.240 | You've got the governor, let's take it up a notch to the imperial level of authority.
00:11:16.840 | They're trying to bring as much as possible to pressure him, Pilate that is, to crucify
00:11:22.840 | Jesus.
00:11:23.840 | But what I think we need to be seeing is that Jesus goes back and says, "My kingdom is not
00:11:28.520 | of this world.
00:11:29.820 | My authority is greater than your authority."
00:11:31.560 | Fine, elevate it, go from the governor level, go to the imperial level, my authority is
00:11:35.280 | greater than that even.
00:11:37.040 | So here we are talking about a conflict, a cosmic conflict of two kingdoms.
00:11:42.400 | If you remember the Gethsemane back in chapter 18, you remember what happened.
00:11:49.020 | Look at verse 4 of chapter 18.
00:11:51.260 | So you have the Roman soldiers, you have the Jewish officers, a cohort, about 100 men showing
00:11:58.500 | up, chief priests and Pharisees and all that.
00:12:02.920 | And so they're coming to arrest him and Jesus asks, "Who do you seek?"
00:12:06.920 | And they answer in verse 5, "Jesus of Nazarene," and he says, "I am."
00:12:11.440 | And they fell down to the ground in verse 6.
00:12:16.880 | You would assume that Jesus is the victim here, right?
00:12:20.160 | They're ready for a brouhaha.
00:12:22.120 | They brought as many soldiers as they could to contain this villain.
00:12:28.660 | And yet, he's got full control of the situation.
00:12:33.000 | Because back in chapter 10, we already knew that.
00:12:35.160 | He's going to lay down his life on his own initiative.
00:12:38.820 | No one will take it away from him.
00:12:40.560 | In chapter 2, there was an attempt at a premature glorification.
00:12:43.800 | And he says, "The hour hasn't come."
00:12:47.460 | In chapter 7, his brothers say, "Well, if you are the Messiah, go and reveal yourself
00:12:51.080 | publicly at the Festival of Booths."
00:12:54.020 | And he says, "This isn't the time yet.
00:12:55.980 | The hour hasn't come."
00:12:56.980 | That phrase repeats itself eight times in the Gospel of John.
00:12:58.900 | In other words, Jesus is moving in his own timeline.
00:13:01.020 | Not his brothers, not his mother, not his disciples a little bit later, not Pilate,
00:13:05.660 | not Judas in chapter 18.
00:13:07.340 | No one will prematurely move him towards the disclosing of the truth and the presentation
00:13:12.820 | of the kingdom of God.
00:13:14.540 | And so here, Jesus is presented as the one in control.
00:13:18.380 | Whether Pilate knew how this whole thing went down and back in Gethsemane or not, is irrelevant
00:13:23.540 | to the presentation of Jesus in chapter 19 that he is in charge.
00:13:28.700 | And he's going to say, "This is how this is going to go down.
00:13:31.940 | And I'm a king and you would have no authority over me, none at all, unless someone above
00:13:39.020 | you gave it to you."
00:13:42.220 | We need to see that because at the core of this conversation is truth.
00:13:48.740 | One author said it this way, "There's a clash of two kingdoms, the kingdom of God and the
00:13:53.620 | kingdom of darkness."
00:13:55.620 | And you remember Luke 22 verse 53 when Jesus says, "This is the hour and the authority,"
00:14:01.740 | the same terminology is being used.
00:14:03.420 | The authority that Pilate is claiming in John 19 is actually being referred to in Luke 22.
00:14:09.300 | This is the hour and the authority of darkness.
00:14:13.140 | So yes, there's this conflict that is presented in John 18 and 19 as Jesus, the representer
00:14:18.820 | of the kingdom of God, versus Pilate, the representer of the kingdom of darkness.
00:14:25.140 | Why this cosmic conflict?
00:14:26.980 | Go back to 1836 and 37.
00:14:29.140 | "My kingdom is not of this world, but I was born to testify to the truth."
00:14:37.260 | That's why he doesn't owe an explanation to anyone as we saw in verse 9.
00:14:45.040 | This is the last time Jesus will speak about truth in verse 37.
00:14:48.400 | The conversation is over regarding truth and the answer that Jesus gives, you could imagine
00:14:55.680 | echoing in Pilate's chambers and the final words are, "What is truth?"
00:15:03.680 | And John answers that question from the very beginning.
00:15:08.080 | So as you kind of develop the narrative and the literary motif and the style and the content,
00:15:13.440 | the way John develops his gospel, you have to admit that that question being posed by
00:15:17.640 | Pilate, the greatest of authorities, human authorities in the gospel, John aims to answer,
00:15:22.960 | "I'm going to tell you what truth is.
00:15:25.040 | I'm going to refer to it 55 times.
00:15:27.540 | I'm going to make sure you understand that by the time the gospel is over, you're going
00:15:30.820 | to agree with me in 21-24, this is the disciple who's testifying to these things and he wrote
00:15:37.520 | these things and we know that his testimony is true."
00:15:39.960 | And in 1935, "He who has seen has testified and his testimony is true and he knows that
00:15:49.680 | he's telling you the truth so you would believe."
00:15:52.600 | So whether it's in reference to the most important event in the gospel of John, the crucifixion
00:15:57.640 | and thereby salvation has come, or the very ending of the gospel of John, he wants you
00:16:03.200 | to walk away and say, "What I just read is truth, thoroughly true.
00:16:08.560 | There is no doubt that this is the true presentation of the story of Jesus."
00:16:13.680 | And Jesus' words to Pilate before Pilate sarcastically says what is true, in verse 37, the very last
00:16:18.720 | sentence, "Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice."
00:16:24.600 | So now you've got this supernatural presentation, something has to happen before you can actually
00:16:29.920 | hear my voice and understand that I'm telling you the truth.
00:16:33.720 | That's the link back to chapter 10 that I was trying to make.
00:16:37.200 | There's this royal link that we can make between 10 and 18-19, but there's also this connection
00:16:44.940 | with the phrase, "You will hear my voice."
00:16:48.500 | In verse 3 of chapter 10, Jesus says, "The sheep hear my voice."
00:16:54.160 | In verse 4, he goes ahead of them and they follow him because they know his voice.
00:17:00.560 | Verse 16, "I have other sheep," referring to the Gentiles, "that are not of this fold.
00:17:05.240 | I must bring them also and they will hear my voice and they'll become one flock with
00:17:09.840 | one shepherd."
00:17:11.440 | And then of course the most famous is verses 27-28, "My sheep hear my voice.
00:17:15.560 | I know them.
00:17:16.560 | They follow me.
00:17:17.560 | I give them eternal life.
00:17:18.560 | They'll never perish.
00:17:19.560 | No one will ever snatch them out of my father's head."
00:17:22.280 | So the sheep hearing the voice of the shepherd or the one who is speaking in chapter 18-19,
00:17:30.160 | that is the link that we should make, that the truth resides in Christ, but it is received
00:17:39.320 | by those who can actually hear his voice and of course going back to chapter 3, you can
00:17:43.800 | link it back to the regeneration that we all experience.
00:17:50.100 | So what John is trying to do is to say there is this objective truth, that's chapter 18
00:17:56.480 | verse 37, propositional truth that we have to connect with and understand and we'll develop
00:18:02.280 | that in a little bit, but there's also this subjectivity to this truth, this incarnational
00:18:08.320 | truth that is in John 14-6, "I am the truth."
00:18:13.700 | That's unique to John.
00:18:14.740 | You won't find that in the synoptics.
00:18:16.620 | So John is thoroughly theological in his presentation of truth.
00:18:21.300 | He's moving away from the Greco-Roman presentation, the Hellenistic presentation where truth was
00:18:26.180 | a concept that is factual.
00:18:28.780 | It's simply philosophical.
00:18:31.620 | He says, "No, there's a different approach that we should understand truth and that is
00:18:35.580 | it's incarnational and for John it is also an instrument to get you to believe."
00:18:44.720 | That's the whole point of the gospel, we read that at the end, and believe of course appears
00:18:47.920 | multiple times in the gospel of John.
00:18:51.280 | And so another scholar said this, "In John, truth involves a mode of behavior and relationships
00:18:58.200 | toward God and within the new community."
00:19:02.200 | So there is a multifaceted presentation of truth.
00:19:06.480 | It's propositional, it's objective, it's incarnational, but then it's also missional.
00:19:11.600 | And I want us to think about truth in the gospel of John in that way.
00:19:16.640 | Now, to understand it that way, we have to say that John is presenting truth in the person
00:19:25.360 | of Jesus Christ from the very beginning.
00:19:27.960 | In John chapter 1, we know that the incarnation statement in verse 14, "The word became flesh
00:19:34.260 | and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, glories of the only begotten from the father
00:19:39.180 | full of grace and truth."
00:19:41.280 | So from the very beginning of the introduction of the Logos, he's trying to make sure that
00:19:44.580 | you tie his coming to the presentation of truth.
00:19:49.640 | In verse 17, he repeats something similar, "Grace and truth were realized through Jesus
00:19:55.160 | Christ."
00:19:56.620 | So for John, it is contained in the person of Christ.
00:20:01.640 | Before we look at it through the various theological categories, I want to make sure we understand
00:20:05.600 | John's vocabulary surrounding truth.
00:20:09.240 | He's got a very deep and rich and multi, you can say, synonyms regarding the presentation
00:20:15.600 | of truth.
00:20:16.600 | So there's a little chart.
00:20:17.600 | It's not the most beautiful chart you've ever seen, but it is a chart that I hope helps
00:20:20.840 | you.
00:20:21.840 | If you can skip over to Gnosko and Oida chart that gives you the columns.
00:20:26.080 | There we go.
00:20:27.080 | I'm happy to send some of this information to you.
00:20:29.200 | There's a discussion about whether Oida and Gnosko both meaning knowledge in the gospel
00:20:33.960 | of John are interchangeable, they're synonymous, they have different meanings.
00:20:38.280 | I would say based on those categories, Jesus' common knowledge is discussed and both terms
00:20:45.080 | are used for that, or his supernatural knowledge, or people's common knowledge, or their understanding
00:20:50.200 | of truth, or people's lack of understanding of truth, or of Jesus, or the disciples' knowledge
00:20:54.840 | of truth, or the disciples' lack of understanding of truth, or the disciples' intimate knowledge,
00:21:00.280 | or the mutual knowledge between the Father and the Son, both of those terms are used
00:21:04.460 | in those categories.
00:21:05.460 | In other words, the best synthesis is to say those two terms that are typically, you know,
00:21:11.000 | they appear all over the New Testament, are actually interchangeable in the gospel of
00:21:14.900 | John.
00:21:15.900 | I'm not saying that extends to the rest of the New Testament, but when we study the New
00:21:18.660 | Testament, we should study it within the authorial context.
00:21:23.000 | And then you can extrapolate and say, "Okay, what are the differences with other authors?"
00:21:26.800 | Give the author the freedom to use a term within the context of what he's trying to
00:21:32.400 | convey to you.
00:21:35.100 | Knowledge could be the foundational meaning, but it could have nuances.
00:21:38.380 | For John, it is interchangeable.
00:21:40.900 | Those two terms are interchangeable.
00:21:42.520 | But beyond that, if you look at the next slide, you can see John enriching this idea of how
00:21:47.600 | do I arrive at the truth?
00:21:48.840 | Well, it's through knowledge, and you can see multiple passages talking about knowledge
00:21:53.200 | and truth.
00:21:54.200 | Go back, go to the next slide, and you can see additional terms that John ties to this
00:22:01.340 | apprehension language.
00:22:03.200 | How do I fully grasp who Jesus is?
00:22:05.920 | And you can see that list in front of you in the passages.
00:22:08.720 | These are just a sample.
00:22:10.000 | There's more passages connecting with that.
00:22:12.280 | So all to say, John is extremely complex and rich in trying to get the reader to understand
00:22:22.320 | what truth is, and then how do I grasp this truth intellectually, and ultimately, personally,
00:22:30.520 | as he demands a response?
00:22:33.760 | So because John is so theological, I think it's good for us to look at six categories.
00:22:40.360 | I see a kaleidoscope of John's presentation of truth through the lens of theology.
00:22:46.560 | And let's begin with Christology.
00:22:48.720 | Let's just look simply at the Christological presentation of John and truth, beginning
00:22:54.120 | with the purpose statement at the end of chapter 20.
00:22:57.280 | There are many signs that could have been performed that are not in this book.
00:23:00.620 | Verse 31 says, "But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the
00:23:04.640 | Christ or the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing, you will have life in his
00:23:09.880 | name."
00:23:10.880 | So that's a simple purpose statement.
00:23:11.880 | Most of you probably have studied it or memorized it, or you know exactly how that fits into
00:23:15.880 | the entire gospel, whether it's a gospel of perseverance or a gospel of evangelism.
00:23:21.720 | You can carry on that debate, as Fee and Carson have done for years.
00:23:26.920 | I would say it's more perseverance-oriented, and I can defend that statement privately
00:23:31.600 | if necessary.
00:23:32.720 | But I do think John is trying to convey something unique, and that is there's a Christological
00:23:38.320 | foundation to all that happens in the gospel of John, which takes us back to 114 that I
00:23:44.800 | already read.
00:23:45.800 | The Incarnation is the second member of the Trinity, the Eternal Son becoming a man taken
00:23:52.880 | on human flesh and delivering to us grace and truth.
00:23:59.600 | Definitely this takes us back to Exodus 33 and 34, where Moses asked for God to reveal
00:24:05.620 | himself uniquely, and God's response is simple, "I'm going to let my attributes be displayed
00:24:12.560 | before you.
00:24:13.560 | I'm going to speak."
00:24:14.560 | He does, and he says, "I'm a God," in verse 6 of chapter 34, "who is abundant in loving
00:24:21.640 | kindness and truth."
00:24:24.200 | So John quickly links us back to Exodus 33 and 34, and verse 17 reaffirms that link.
00:24:33.240 | But he continues, and in chapter 7, John again refers to Jesus, and it says this, "He who
00:24:42.220 | speaks for himself seeks his own glory, but he who is seeking the glory of the one who
00:24:45.400 | sent him, he is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him."
00:24:51.840 | In other words, he is true, thoroughly true, true and true and true, there is no unrighteousness
00:24:57.280 | in him.
00:24:58.280 | So he'll repeat that idea of Jesus being the truth bringer or the one who contains truth
00:25:03.080 | in chapter 7.
00:25:04.480 | Chapter 16, look at verse 7, where he again refers to the truthfulness of Jesus.
00:25:10.360 | I tell you the truth.
00:25:11.920 | It's your advantage that I go away.
00:25:13.720 | It's a factual statement, believe me.
00:25:15.680 | But again, Jesus is presented as the one who speaks the truth.
00:25:21.000 | That's why in chapter 1, verse 9, he is the true light.
00:25:24.520 | In 632, he is the true bread from heaven.
00:25:27.840 | In 151, he is the true vine.
00:25:30.120 | So all of those metaphors are intended to present Jesus as the one who is the true one,
00:25:36.040 | but in all of them, he is symbolizing and representing the relationship between us and
00:25:42.120 | God.
00:25:43.120 | And you see that in multiple ways.
00:25:46.640 | Of course, 14.6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," meaning I'm the way, I'm the
00:25:51.240 | path, I'm the truth, I'm the means, and I'm the life, I'm the goal.
00:25:57.400 | The path, the means, and the goal is probably the best explanation of 14.6, and you can
00:26:02.740 | find all the discussions about that in various commentaries.
00:26:05.820 | So now, in John's mind, truth isn't simply, there's the word of God, believe it, Psalm
00:26:11.560 | 119, Psalm 19, it's truthful, you should believe it and follow it.
00:26:15.160 | No, the objective truth of who God is has now been contained and presented in a person.
00:26:23.200 | And in chapter 8, that truth sets us free from sin.
00:26:34.640 | Verse 32 of chapter 8, "You'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
00:26:39.620 | In verse 31, you see that if you continue in my word, so now there's an objective connection
00:26:43.960 | of this truth, my word, my teachings, then you are truly my disciples, and you will know
00:26:49.300 | the truth and the truth will set you free.
00:26:50.980 | So now you've got both being presented here.
00:26:53.540 | There's an objective understanding that's expected in 8.31, but there's a personal incarnational
00:26:58.140 | truth that you need to attach yourself to, to be set free from sin.
00:27:02.380 | Now what happened earlier in 8.13 is the conversation begins.
00:27:06.880 | Jesus declares, "I'm the light of the world."
00:27:09.320 | The Pharisees come back in verse 13 and says, "You're only testifying yourself, your testimony
00:27:13.200 | is not true."
00:27:14.200 | In other words, give us a second witness.
00:27:16.320 | Now back in 5.31, Jesus already said, "I agree with you, I need another witness."
00:27:21.900 | And so in 5.31, all the way down into the 40s, towards the end of the chapter, he says,
00:27:26.160 | "I'll give you four."
00:27:27.160 | Remember that section?
00:27:28.160 | "I'm going to give you multiple witnesses.
00:27:30.200 | The Father's going to be my witness, John the Baptist is going to be my witness, the
00:27:33.360 | scriptures are going to be my witness as well."
00:27:37.320 | And I'm forgetting the fourth one, help me out here.
00:27:43.240 | None of you know either, huh?
00:27:46.040 | The signs.
00:27:47.040 | No, my works, not the signs, but synonymous.
00:27:51.800 | So Jesus says, "I already said that, I get that, I've already given you multiple witnesses."
00:27:57.220 | So even the objection in 8.13 is gratuitous, even as the story develops.
00:28:05.020 | But John's approach is to say, "Make sure you understand that this person of truth,
00:28:09.240 | the Christology that is presented in the truth is a Christology of a person."
00:28:16.520 | So then, in verse 26 of chapter 8, Jesus says, "I have many things to speak and to judge
00:28:21.640 | concerning you, but he who sent me is true.
00:28:24.900 | And the things which I heard from him, these things I speak to the world."
00:28:28.480 | So now he's the representer of truthful statements, and you can believe me when I present them
00:28:35.100 | to you.
00:28:36.100 | Well, you know, the Jewish leaders quickly shift the conversation to origin, and in verse
00:28:41.120 | 33, they start speaking about, "We belong to Abraham," Jesus says, "No, you really belong
00:28:46.900 | to the devil because you're trying to kill me because he's a liar, has been a liar, has
00:28:51.600 | been a destroyer," verse 44.
00:28:53.980 | So now this discussion of truth is elevated to spiritual origins.
00:28:58.560 | For them, it's physical, that's where it begins.
00:29:00.740 | But Jesus takes it back to this cosmic battle that no, we're talking about a spiritual war.
00:29:07.600 | But the climax of this whole section is in verse 36, where he already said there's a
00:29:13.980 | way to be set free from sin, verse 31, 32.
00:29:17.260 | Verse 35, he says, "The slave doesn't remain in the house forever.
00:29:20.340 | The son does remain forever.
00:29:22.200 | So if the son makes you free, you'll be free indeed."
00:29:25.740 | So now there's a promise that whatever he communicated back in 31 and 32, if you continue
00:29:32.140 | in my word, you've got my disciples, you'll know the truth, the truth will set you free.
00:29:35.900 | Verse 36, I'm the one who's setting you free.
00:29:39.480 | And in the original, you've got a chiasm formed between verses 31 and 37, accenting the idea
00:29:46.540 | that if you want to be truly set free, the truthfulness and the perpetual reality of
00:29:54.000 | that freedom is contained in the person of the son.
00:29:57.860 | So again, John is trying to look at it from multiple ways to say we're talking about the
00:30:02.960 | truth that is incarnate, that ultimately sets you free.
00:30:09.500 | But it's based in his objective teaching back to verse 31.
00:30:15.220 | My word is what you are expected to fulfill.
00:30:20.920 | But in verse 31, there's a little nuance you should consider.
00:30:25.640 | If you continue in my word, then you're truly my disciples.
00:30:30.920 | So you have to have this abiding language as part of your understanding.
00:30:35.960 | Menno, you've seen that word I'm sure before in John, unique to John, emphasizing this
00:30:43.420 | intimate, prolonged, or you can say eternal relationship.
00:30:47.880 | And for him to strategically use a word that's often used to refer to the relationship between
00:30:54.600 | the father and the son, and then the believers and the son, and the believers and the spirit,
00:31:00.720 | to use it now in relation to the objective word of God, now speaks to the value we should
00:31:05.640 | place on that relationship with the objective truth of John 8, 31.
00:31:12.260 | Now moving outside of John for a second, in 1 John 3, 19, John says we are of the truth.
00:31:20.560 | So the application then, I believe John is written a year before 1 John is written, John
00:31:26.240 | just continues this discussion of truth into the epistles.
00:31:30.120 | And he makes it so intimate to the true follower of Jesus that he uses language of being.
00:31:36.800 | We are of the truth.
00:31:39.240 | We're not standing in the truth.
00:31:40.600 | We're not sitting in the truth.
00:31:42.240 | We're not aware of the truth.
00:31:43.720 | We're not practicing the truth.
00:31:45.160 | No, we are of the truth.
00:31:48.040 | It becomes part of our being.
00:31:50.200 | That's the ultimate application, is that it has to be so intimate in your life that it's
00:31:56.360 | as if you embody yourself the truth of Jesus Christ, who he is.
00:32:01.920 | Obviously in a different sense.
00:32:02.920 | I hope you understand that.
00:32:04.680 | But that's what John is expecting of every single believer who wants to grasp his presentation
00:32:10.720 | of what truth is.
00:32:12.720 | That's a Christological presentation of truth in John.
00:32:15.600 | There's also a second and that is in regards to theology proper.
00:32:19.160 | That's a second category of theology in John in regards to truth.
00:32:24.160 | And that is in reference to the Father.
00:32:27.480 | And so in chapter 17, I've read this verse before, "This is eternal life that they may
00:32:31.800 | know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you've sent."
00:32:36.420 | So now John is tying truth to God's character, eternal life, Jesus Christ whom you've sent.
00:32:46.840 | And of course, if you know John, you know how loaded that is.
00:32:50.420 | Because they're always trying to define eternal life.
00:32:52.760 | And in John, it has a very nuanced meaning.
00:32:56.700 | Eternal life in John is not about living forever.
00:33:00.180 | That's resurrection in John.
00:33:02.140 | And he's 100% consistent in dividing those two.
00:33:07.040 | Eternal life in John is about your relationship with God here and now that extends into eternity.
00:33:13.840 | But it's not something you anticipate one day.
00:33:15.920 | In the synoptics, it's different.
00:33:17.420 | So be careful mixing those terms in the synoptics versus John.
00:33:22.260 | But John nuances that because he wants us to understand there are phases in our relationship
00:33:27.320 | with God.
00:33:28.320 | And eternal life is simple, 17.3, to know the true God.
00:33:32.800 | And of course, then Jesus Christ is the one who mediates that knowledge to us.
00:33:38.120 | So that's John's connection of truth to the Father.
00:33:42.320 | Now back in chapter 5, in that little paragraph regarding the four witnesses, verse 37 says,
00:33:51.160 | 5.37, "The Father who sent me, he has testified of me.
00:33:55.200 | You've neither heard his voice at any time, nor have you seen his form.
00:33:59.280 | You do not have his word abiding in you, there's the man of language again, for you do not
00:34:03.240 | believe him who sent me.
00:34:05.320 | You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and they
00:34:08.340 | testify about me.
00:34:09.920 | And yet you're unwilling to come to me so that you may have life if I do not receive
00:34:14.440 | glory for men, but I know that you do not have the love of God in yourselves."
00:34:20.200 | Who's going to accuse you before the Father, verse 45?
00:34:22.760 | The one who accuses you is Moses in whom you have set your hope.
00:34:26.720 | If you believe Moses, you'd believe me, for he wrote on me.
00:34:29.040 | If you don't believe his writings, how will you believe my words?
00:34:31.320 | So now John is trying to present this element of the Father is the one who testifies to
00:34:38.080 | Jesus.
00:34:39.080 | Of course, the works, the scriptures, and John the Baptist does, and Moses does toward
00:34:43.120 | the end.
00:34:44.120 | But he is the one who is the witness.
00:34:47.560 | To God, the Father is true and now he's functioning as a witness to Jesus Christ.
00:34:54.120 | In 333, God is called true.
00:34:56.600 | So even in the beginning of the gospel, he's trying to present him as the one who is true.
00:35:04.200 | But for John, it's rooted in Psalm 31, verse 5, for example, "Into your hand I commit
00:35:10.160 | my spirit."
00:35:11.160 | John 19, right?
00:35:13.000 | What's the ending of that verse?
00:35:14.480 | "You ransomed me, O Lord, God of truth."
00:35:19.800 | Isaiah 65, verse 15, "He who is blessed in the earth will be blessed by the God of truth,
00:35:25.040 | and he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of truth."
00:35:28.680 | So John has taken us back to the gospel, to the Old Testament as much as possible to tell
00:35:33.840 | us that this is the God that I am referring to who sent Jesus Christ, the God of truth.
00:35:40.480 | And 728, Jesus Christ out in the temple teaching and saying, "You both know me and know where
00:35:46.120 | I've come from.
00:35:47.120 | I've not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you do not know."
00:35:52.160 | So you have a couple places in John that specifically address God as the one who is true.
00:35:58.800 | And we already saw that in 826 and 827, "I'm speaking the truth from the one who sent me,
00:36:05.500 | that is the Father."
00:36:06.500 | So you can develop some of that on your own.
00:36:08.920 | There's a third category, and that is truth and pneumatology, truth and pneumatology.
00:36:15.720 | That's the spirit language.
00:36:16.960 | So in the end of chapter 15, verse 26, Jesus says, "When the helper comes, whom I will
00:36:23.680 | send to you from the Father, that is the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he
00:36:28.960 | will testify about me."
00:36:31.820 | So now the spirit is not just the Holy Spirit.
00:36:34.920 | If you consider the Holy Spirit being presented in the rest of the New Testament, he's the
00:36:38.320 | Holy Spirit.
00:36:39.320 | We know that.
00:36:41.000 | In John, he's not only the Holy Spirit, he's the spirit of truth.
00:36:45.880 | So he's trying to add that quality to the third member of the Trinity to make sure that
00:36:49.640 | as you think about the Trinity through John's lens, it's always every member has truth qualitatively
00:36:58.320 | a part of their presentation.
00:37:02.080 | All of them.
00:37:03.080 | And it's not to divide the Trinity in any way, but to say, "I'm going to present each
00:37:07.000 | one and the role that each member plays in your relationship as a disciple, but all of
00:37:13.760 | them are presented as true."
00:37:17.320 | And here, verse 26 of 15, he's presented as the witness.
00:37:21.880 | Again, cosmic battle or cosmic trial is the language that's being represented here.
00:37:29.360 | Now in 1417, you can see that the spirit is also a spirit of truth whom the world cannot
00:37:36.040 | receive.
00:37:37.040 | It doesn't see him or know him.
00:37:39.260 | You know him because he abides in you and will be in you.
00:37:43.320 | And then in chapter 16, verse 13, he is the spirit of truth.
00:37:47.500 | He will guide you into all truth.
00:37:49.640 | He will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will
00:37:54.080 | disclose to you what is to come.
00:37:57.440 | So between those three passages, you've got the spirit dwelling, he's permanently abiding
00:38:02.760 | with the believers, he's convicting the world, and he's guiding us into all truth.
00:38:10.140 | But how does he do that?
00:38:11.200 | Verse 13 of chapter 16.
00:38:14.000 | He's not originating truth about Jesus Christ.
00:38:17.780 | He's simply taking what has already been revealed and he's now disclosing it to them.
00:38:23.640 | And of course, the last phrase most likely is referring to the writing of the New Testament.
00:38:27.680 | He will disclose in the future more of what is to come.
00:38:32.420 | And so John's presentation of the spirit is he's a spirit of truth.
00:38:36.720 | And now we get into the cognitive element.
00:38:41.140 | It's incarnation on Christ.
00:38:43.240 | It's qualitatively true in the father.
00:38:45.100 | But now let's tap into the cognitive presentation of truth.
00:38:49.560 | He's trying to kind of close this loop around the Trinity and truth.
00:38:54.240 | So the spirit uniquely fulfills the role of helping us actually understand, illumination,
00:39:01.160 | is that language, the word of God, as it speaks about Christ.
00:39:06.880 | That's the ending of chapter five.
00:39:08.480 | You search the scriptures, but they speak of me.
00:39:11.760 | So now the spirit is that agent who is activating our understanding and then applying it to
00:39:18.280 | us when it speaks about Jesus.
00:39:22.200 | Cornelis Benema, who's a John scholar, said this, "The paraclete will lead the disciples
00:39:26.820 | into a more perfect knowledge of Jesus' teaching.
00:39:31.440 | The paraclete does not bring independent revelation, but interprets Jesus' revelation.
00:39:37.380 | He draws out the significance of the historical revelation in Christ."
00:39:44.660 | And of course, being cessationists, you understand what that means in the canonical sense.
00:39:49.960 | We have a closed canon and now the spirit is activating and applying and illumining
00:39:54.340 | our minds in order to fully understand what is the scriptural revelation and application
00:39:59.800 | to us about Christ.
00:40:02.180 | So you can make these applications.
00:40:04.740 | The spirit's role, well, it's to be with us forever.
00:40:08.360 | It's to empower us.
00:40:09.360 | That's chapter 14.
00:40:10.360 | That's chapter 7.
00:40:11.360 | Secondly, to teach us.
00:40:13.100 | That's chapter 16, verse 13 and 14.
00:40:15.940 | It's to remind us, 1426, of what we know about Christ.
00:40:21.400 | It's to testify, 1526, about Christ.
00:40:24.880 | It's 1613 to guide us into truth.
00:40:27.700 | In 1614, it's to glorify Jesus and ultimately to facilitate peace.
00:40:34.340 | All of that is in the context of those passages.
00:40:36.880 | He's the one who brings peace to us, the paraclete does.
00:40:40.660 | So John is now saying there's an element that the second member plays in regards to truth,
00:40:47.220 | the Father and the Spirit.
00:40:50.260 | But there's also a connection that John makes between truth and bibliology.
00:40:54.200 | That's the fourth category we should consider, truth and bibliology.
00:40:59.580 | So back in chapter 8, verse 31, continuing in his word makes us or demonstrates that
00:41:10.000 | we're true disciples and that is what lets us know the truth and then making us free.
00:41:15.840 | So now you have to understand it's dual, like I said a minute ago, it is a dualistic presentation
00:41:20.140 | or dual presentation rather.
00:41:21.980 | It's Christ and his objective word and that would be a reference to Scripture.
00:41:27.700 | Back in chapter 5, 39-44, you search the Scriptures, objective reference, you will have freedom
00:41:33.060 | in them, they speak of me, incarnational reference.
00:41:38.300 | Carson writes the following about the Spirit's role in all of this and specifically the role
00:41:47.540 | of the Scripture as it activates itself in our lives.
00:41:50.900 | He says this about John 17, "No one can be sanctified or set apart for the Lord's use
00:41:57.540 | without learning to think God's thoughts after him, without learning to live in conformity
00:42:03.000 | with the word that he has graciously given to us."
00:42:06.540 | And that is the point of 17-17, sanctify them in your truth, your word is truth.
00:42:11.340 | So now we run to that verse all the time to talk about how to help somebody become more
00:42:14.780 | sanctified, right?
00:42:15.780 | How do you fight your sins?
00:42:18.740 | The word of God, there's no other means and that's true.
00:42:21.480 | But John is trying to say that word is not simply the means, it's the truth and there's
00:42:26.660 | no other option.
00:42:27.740 | Even for Jesus, we know that from Matthew 4, from Luke 4, the temptations of Christ,
00:42:31.900 | he constantly leaned on Scripture even in his own demonstration of being separate from
00:42:37.820 | this world.
00:42:38.820 | Constantly, so there's only one means whether it's Christ as the example or us as those
00:42:44.740 | who are being sanctified.
00:42:47.140 | So that's Bibliology.
00:42:48.140 | But there's a fifth category and that is mission.
00:42:52.220 | I read the last verse or the next to the last verse and all that is true is intended to
00:43:00.660 | bring about belief at the end of chapter 20 as well.
00:43:08.500 | This is why I wrote it so that you would believe at the end of chapter 19 verse 34-35.
00:43:13.740 | This is true.
00:43:14.740 | This is the testimony so that you would believe.
00:43:18.500 | So John is trying to say in multiple places and multiple ways, my goal is missional.
00:43:24.940 | And that mission of belief is tied to the truth that I am presenting specifically, like
00:43:31.860 | I said, through the witnesses.
00:43:34.100 | I think it's a good way for us to divide the Gospel of John into two parts.
00:43:37.740 | The witness of John the Baptist, chapters 1 through 12, and the witness of John the
00:43:41.100 | Apostle, chapters 13 through 21.
00:43:44.460 | And if you've considered that before, John 1, 6 through 19.
00:43:48.580 | This is the witness.
00:43:49.580 | He's not the true light, but he was a witness to the light.
00:43:51.300 | So from the very beginning, he's been presented as a witness to the light.
00:43:55.340 | In 333, John the Baptist is a witness.
00:43:58.380 | 533, he is a witness.
00:44:00.340 | You've seen him.
00:44:01.340 | He testified to the truth.
00:44:02.700 | And then 1041 and 42, it says he didn't perform any signs, but everything John said about
00:44:10.060 | this man was true.
00:44:12.140 | And then the narrator says, "And many believed in him."
00:44:15.920 | And John the Baptist leaves the scene in the story.
00:44:19.480 | So chapter 1 to chapter 10, the very ending, John the Baptist is that first John as a witness.
00:44:25.480 | And then it changes, and you get to 13 through 21, and John the Baptist never reappears.
00:44:31.620 | John the Apostle takes the scene over and over and over.
00:44:35.380 | He's in the bosom of Christ, or next to Christ, and all that.
00:44:38.860 | So you know that presentation, meaning he's trying to present two witnesses to the truthfulness
00:44:45.700 | of the story.
00:44:47.220 | A Samaritan woman in chapter 4 is presented as a witness.
00:44:51.660 | She goes and tells the villagers of Sikar, "I think I found the Messiah."
00:44:57.740 | And they affirm that he is the Messiah.
00:45:00.740 | The truthfulness of her statement, verse 42 says, "He truly is the Savior of the world."
00:45:08.180 | That's a factual statement, but you still have to understand that now they're affirming
00:45:11.660 | the truth of what she told them about Jesus the Messiah.
00:45:17.440 | And I think if you've done any research into John 4, you'd have read that there was a temple
00:45:23.220 | to Augustus in Samaria.
00:45:25.820 | And it said, "Augustus, Octavian, is the Savior of the world."
00:45:30.780 | Son of God, Savior of the world.
00:45:32.820 | So it's strategic, I believe, for John to put that confession in that city.
00:45:40.140 | Because constantly she would be passing, or they would be passing, that kind of a Roman
00:45:45.420 | propaganda statement.
00:45:46.860 | And that's all it was.
00:45:48.580 | It was just propaganda activated by him when he became the emperor, attaching himself to
00:45:52.980 | Julius Caesar, deifying him, and thereby becoming the Son of God.
00:45:57.420 | But I think it's important to understand that's what he's trying to convey to us.
00:46:00.980 | Yes, the Samaritan woman and the villagers of Sychar thought, or read, rather, that he
00:46:06.660 | might be, that Augustus might be the Savior of the world, or the Son of God.
00:46:11.220 | But John says, "No, this one is the true Son of God."
00:46:14.940 | And the goal in all of this is to make sure that you believe that.
00:46:17.780 | Well, there's a final category, and that is truth and worship.
00:46:23.460 | And that does keep us in John 4, in the middle of this discussion between Jesus and the Samaritan
00:46:31.380 | woman.
00:46:32.380 | Verse 22, Jesus says, "You worship what you do not know.
00:46:36.100 | We worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews.
00:46:39.360 | But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in
00:46:43.600 | spirit and truth.
00:46:47.160 | For such people the Father seeks to be his worshippers."
00:46:51.440 | The whole point is, it's not about the place.
00:46:56.960 | It's actually about understanding that the Father demands that you worship truthfully.
00:47:06.320 | And even putting both of those substantive, spirit and truth, so closely together, without
00:47:11.320 | any kind of an article dividing the two, tries to link them as close as possible in the grammar.
00:47:19.720 | You have to have both if you're going to be a genuine and an accepted worshipper.
00:47:25.200 | It has to be truth, and it has to be done in the spirit.
00:47:30.300 | Stanley Porter kind of points that out uniquely.
00:47:33.780 | So what is John's meaning behind that?
00:47:37.000 | I think Carson captures it the best when he says this, "It must be in spirit and truth,
00:47:44.400 | essentially God-centered, made possible by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and in personal
00:47:50.560 | knowledge of, and conformity to God's Word made flesh, the one who is God's truth, the
00:47:57.920 | faithful exposition and fulfillment of God and his saving purposes."
00:48:03.040 | So if he's already presented the spirit as the spirit of truth, and he will develop that
00:48:07.240 | of course beyond chapter 4, and now he says this is the true meaning.
00:48:12.600 | I am the one who gives you the water of life.
00:48:14.820 | I am who's going to satisfy your thirst and your hunger.
00:48:18.740 | Ultimately then this is how God expects you to worship.
00:48:21.840 | So get this, this is the missional application of John.
00:48:26.160 | It's not just about the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit, and Scripture.
00:48:30.600 | It is missional, and ultimately it is to the point of worship.
00:48:35.640 | And I'm just trying to put out those, place those verses in front of you that are unique
00:48:40.520 | to John, not to create some kind of a feud between the synoptics and John, but to say
00:48:45.880 | John is trying to do something very different in the 90s, 30 or so years after the synoptics
00:48:52.360 | have been written, to show you need to think differently about the concept of truth in
00:48:57.580 | relation to every member of the Trinity, in relation to the Holy Scripture, and in relation
00:49:02.880 | to what God demands of you.
00:49:04.840 | And it's Spirit-empowered, and it is truth-based.
00:49:09.960 | And you cannot elevate one over the other, hence the omission of the article in the middle.
00:49:14.600 | No, you have to have both if you are going to be an accepted worshiper.
00:49:19.200 | And I think the most appropriate way to end is to take us to the ending of 1 John 5.20.
00:49:25.280 | Because if all of the gospel is intended to present Jesus as the Son of God, the one who
00:49:29.640 | brings eternal life, and then the first epistle is intended to develop some of those elements
00:49:38.080 | and ultimately say there is a conflict within the Christian community now.
00:49:43.480 | A simple way to find the difference between John and 1 John is to say John is about, it's
00:49:50.280 | outward facing, there's conflict from outside, and so he's trying to encourage the believers
00:49:53.880 | who are being persecuted.
00:49:54.880 | 1 John, there's conflict within, they went out from us.
00:49:58.120 | Remember that passage?
00:49:59.680 | So now there's a conflict from within, and he's trying to correct their theology about
00:50:02.720 | Christ, and in 5.20 he says this, "We know that the Son of God has come, and has given
00:50:08.920 | us understanding so that we may know Him who is true.
00:50:12.600 | And we are in Him who is true."
00:50:14.240 | There's that statement of being, and in His Son Jesus Christ, this is the true God and
00:50:20.760 | eternal life.
00:50:21.760 | Why does that not sound like 17.3 or 20.30.31, proving that the same individual wrote both?
00:50:29.800 | As much debate as exists about that authorship issue.
00:50:33.640 | But he's trying to tie all of those elements together at the end of this letter.
00:50:39.400 | He is true, He's communicating to us who is true so we may know Him, we are in Him who
00:50:44.400 | is true, He is the only true God and eternal life.
00:50:47.880 | And so as you think about John, and you develop those 55 references to truth in John, I hope
00:50:53.160 | you always make it theological.
00:50:56.200 | Not factual, not philosophical, move away from the Gnostic books that give you commentaries,
00:51:02.200 | there's plenty of them, to try to Gnosticize John.
00:51:05.720 | That's not in any way what John is trying to accomplish.
00:51:08.480 | The best proof of that is look at the statements that have to do with truth in John, they lean
00:51:13.640 | on the Old Testament.
00:51:15.960 | Understanding everything in the Holy Scripture to then say now here's the application in
00:51:19.840 | Christ.
00:51:20.840 | We have a couple of minutes, any questions?
00:51:25.800 | Alright, I was either very clear or completely unclear.
00:51:32.120 | There's one question, nope, no question, alright see, even that was a fake question, okay,
00:51:36.240 | no questions.
00:51:37.240 | Well man, enjoy the conference, have a great afternoon and hopefully you've enjoyed it
00:51:41.520 | so far.
00:51:41.960 | [BLANK_AUDIO]