Truth? You ought to be joking! (Wednesday, Deuteronomy 11, John 17)

Imagine that you knew that you were going to make your very last prayer before you die what would you pray for? In John 17 we have the great farewell prayer of the great High Priest for himself and for his bride, the church. The prayer has five main petitions but in light of Deut. 11 and our series on Psalm 119, I will focus only on aspects emphasizing the centrality of God’s word to salvation, life and godliness.


Jesus holds high the word of God as the primary instrument by which believers can live holy lives – sanctification. The particular aspect of God’s word I would like to encourage each other with is this: It is The Truth. We live in a culture where the existence of an absolute truth is a morally repugnant extremist view which, at best, one should strictly keep to oneself. To hear our culture speaking, you would conclude that truth is harsh and intolerant and even worse, just plain wrong. It has no place in the highly scientific age of the 21^st century!

I would agree that, at its finest, science does a pretty good job of explaining physical reality but it does not explain all reality. For that, we need the word of God. We reject God’s truth not because science is more persuasive but because sin is. Science makes no moral demands on us but the word of God does.

Jesus boldly declares that God’s word is truth “Sanctify them by your truth; your word is truth.” (v17). Civilizations will come and go. Cultures will come and go. But the word of God stands forever. Firmer than the foundations of the universe and sharper than a two-edged sword is the word of God. Are we really persuaded of this, The Truth? If we are indeed persuaded, I would like to suggest that there are at least two things we ought to do with the word of God.

First, we ought to feed on it until it becomes our staple diet. I am sure we could indulge to our heart’s content and still not have to watch the calories! Deut. 11 is really good to read to see how the centrality of God’s word is portrayed in the lives of his chosen people. In it, Moses suggests some creative ways of keeping the word of God prominent in a Jew’s life. Perhaps with a bit of poetic license, I have translated some of them into our tech savvy culture.

Forehead --> Facebook, Wrist --> Iphone 4, Doorposts --> Ipad 2 screen saver, Gates --> Ipod

Can you think of more creative translations of Deut. 11:18-21 into our contemporary lifestyle?

Since the word of God cannot return to him void, scripture makes it clear that by teaching, rebuking, correcting and training us, the word of God renews our minds to make us wise in salvation, life and godliness. The more we expose our lives to the word of God, the more the character of Christ forms in us. The more, the more...

Could you share some of the ways you have found helpful to regularly study God’s word?

The second imperative is proclaim! Proclaim! Proclaim! (John17:18-19) We need to tell the world this truth. We have a responsibility to this generation and, if the Lord tarries, to many generations to come. Evangelism can be hard, even frustrating work. But we cannot obediently study God’s word and not be convicted of the urgency of evangelism. It’s interesting that this text says that as we go into the world with the gospel, we ought to be like Christ. As Christ’s ambassadors, we ought to be like the product we’re selling. How can this be? I would suggest that this primarily happens by dwelling on God’s word.

God is using his word to make us more like Jesus so let us dwell on it. God is using his word to call people to salvation so let us declare it. God's word is truth!

Elvis Shoko (7pm @ EAC)

Tomorrows Readings: Ephesians 1, John 18