What is the Church? It Holds on to The Truth

What is the Church? Three weeks ago we began with our Fall Building Project—the church is built on Jesus as its foundation. Then we learned that the church is the Body of Christ, and that members of the Body serve each other in love. Last week we saw that the Church is a Body nourished by Christ. Let’s look at the church this week as the Body that holds on to the truth.

“You’re lying!” We’ve thought it. We’ve said it. How can we figure out if a person is telling the truth or not? I’ve invited one of our members, Dave Knefelkamp, to share the way he can tell whether a person is truthful or not. Dave conducts polygraph tests. It’s a way to determine truth vs. deception. The polygraph measures physical changes in a person caused by fear. He sets up his computer and different monitors to measure these changes. The Galvanometers measure changes in the central nervous system. The Pneumographs help determine breathing patterns. The person also wears a blood pressure cuff. By using specific questions and monitoring the person on his computer, Dave can determine whether or not they’re telling the truth.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a polygraph at home? We struggle to figure out the truth because we can’t see inside a person’s heart. That struggle has been going on for a long time. Think of Pontius Pilate’s conversation with Jesus. After Jesus said, “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.” Pilate responded with our question: “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38).

In our look at the church, we want to learn that it is a body that holds on to the truth. How can we figure out what the truth is? Can we hook God up to a polygraph? Dave said something pretty profound to me about the polygraph and a person’s heart. I asked Dave, “Why do you monitor blood pressure?” His answer— “Because a person knows in his heart whether he’s telling the truth or not.”

What would God’s heart tell us? The truth! The truth lives in God’s heart, and his heart keeps Christ’s body alive, pumping the truth throughout its members. We need to hold on to the truth that he’s given us!

We can’t hook up a polygraph to the Bible. Listen to what the Bible says about God and truth. "God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" (Numbers 23:19). Is it possible for God to lie? No! His heart is filled with the truth. Everything he has spoken and revealed to mankind has been the truth.

That didn’t change when Jesus, God’s Son, arrived in this world. His heart was his Father’s heart. He had to speak the truth! Think back to our sermon text. Jesus said, "I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world." (John 17:14). Jesus shared God’s own words with his disciples. They were more than just words. He continued, "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." (John 17:17). Jesus didn’t say that the Word contains the truth. He didn’t say it might be the truth. He said “your word is truth.” It is, always has been, and always will be!

How can we be sure that the Bible we have is God’s Word? We can’t hook up the polygraph to the men who wrote down these words—Moses, David, Isaiah, Matthew, Paul, and John. How could human beings claim to have God’s truth? Listen: "All Scripture is God-breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16). God breathed these words into the men who wrote them down. That’s where we get the word “inspired.” It means “breathed into.”

The apostle Peter adds this reminder. "For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1:21). The prophets and apostles didn’t make these things up. God made sure that they recorded his exact thoughts and words. When we read our Bibles today, we have God’s Word—it is the Truth!

Many church bodies are struggling today because they don’t hold on to truth. A few years ago, a group of Greek Bible scholars began the “Jesus Seminar.” They went through the four gospels verse by verse, phrase by phrase, and voted on whether they thought Jesus said it, might have said it, or didn’t say it. They took the truth and turned it into a big question mark.

Future pastors in seminaries around the world are learning these things. On a visit to Luther Seminary here in the Twin Cities, I stopped at the bookstore, thinking I might find something helpful for my studies. I picked up a sermon study book on Jesus’ parables. It was perfect, because Pastor Birkholz and I were both going to be preaching on them. So, I opened the front cover and looked at the introduction. The author stated that we really don’t know if Jesus actually spoke these parables or not.

The world around us doesn’t believe that the Bible is God’s Word. It doesn’t believe that absolute truth exists. We know better. Peter reminds us, "And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts" (2 Peter 1:19).

If we could hook up a polygraph to the Bible, we’d have to be careful. It’s powerful! It could blow the polygraph’s circuits! Listen to what Paul says in Romans 1:16. "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16). Paul saw the power of God’s Word during his ministry. The Word turned his life around on the road to Damascus. The Word drove a demon out of a young woman in Philippi. He reminded the Thessalonian congregation: “our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction" (1 Thessalonians 1:5).

God’s Word still has that kind of power. We may not get to see the same kind of miracles Paul saw, but we still see its power. I wish you could see what happens when I use God’s Word with someone in the hospital. When I first arrive, I can see the monitors for breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. I have seen those numbers settle down as I shared a section of the Psalms, or some other section from God’s Word.

The same thing happens with people suffering from Alzheimer's. I stopped to see our member Virgil Anderson a few weeks ago. He is in a memory care unit. He was upset—he was struggling with depression and having a hard time sleeping at night. He doesn’t always remember where he is or who is visiting him. After I shared God’s powerful Word with him, he broke down crying and said, “Thank you Pastor. I needed that.” The truth is powerful!

Dave showed us this printout of a polygraph test and explained what it meant. Can you and I read one of these? Would we understand?

What about the Bible? Some people tell me they don’t read the Bible or come to Bible study because they find it too hard to understand. Is that true? Listen to what God says in Psalm 119: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple" (Psalm 119:105; 130).

God gave us his Word so that we can understand it. He makes it simple enough for everyone. Just visit our preschool sometime and listen to 3 and 4 year olds talk about Jesus. The same is true here in worship on Sunday morning. The little voices we hear during worship are often talking about Jesus. Even the noises of a happy infant can be a response to hearing the truth.

Children experience the power of God’s Word. We can understand it too. We need to spend as much time as we can in the Word. When you don’t understand something you’ve read, ask one of the pastors. I love the e-mails or phone calls that come every once in a while, asking about something the person has just read, or something a friend asked them about. God’s Word—the Truth—is clear. We can understand it!

What’s the value of conducting a polygraph? It gets to the heart of the matter. It shows whether or not the person told the truth. Are they guilty, or not guilty? What about God’s Word? How valuable is it?

I like this shirt. It’s a humorous reminder about the truth. It says, “In God we trust. All others we polygraph.” God’s Word is the truth. It’s precious. We don’t need to question it.

Our sinful nature wants to question God’s Word. We don’t always like what the truth has to tell us. The Law clearly points out our flaws, weaknesses and sins. It tells us that the blessings of marriage belong in marriage between one man and one woman. It calls homosexuality a sin. God tells us to avoid drinking too much alcohol. It calls talking behind someone’s back “gossip.” It tells us to put others and their schedules and needs ahead of our own.

We don’t like what we hear, so we change it. We say things like, “I believe” or “I think” or “that’s your interpretation.” We tell God what he should have said, instead of letting God’s Word be the truth. The LORD warned the Israelites about that attitude. "Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you" (Deuteronomy 4:2).