WHAT IS TRUTH?

Mike Geppert

Woodland Church

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

(John 18:37-38, NIV) “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.”

1.  Truth is revealed by God

(Psalm 25:4-5, NIV) “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”

(1 Corinthians 2:9-10, NIV) “However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.”

(John 1:14, 17-18, NIV) “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”

Truth is not discovered by intellect but it is revealed

It is disclosed by divine revelation

• Nicodemus

(John 3:2, 4, NIV) “He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him. How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

2.  Truth demands a response

Revealed truth confronts the will/sin

You must either accept it or reject it

There is no neutral ground

(Deuteronomy 30:19, NIV) “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live”

(John 3:19-21, NIV) “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

(John 8:31-32, NIV) “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

• The Thief

(Luke 23:40-42, NIV) “But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

3.  Truth is a Person – Jesus Christ

(John 14:6, NIV) “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

(John 1:1-2, 14, NIV) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”

(Hebrews 1:1-2, NIV) “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.”

• Thomas

(John 20:28, NIV) “Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”