John 16:5-16 · The Work of the Holy Spirit
How Can I Know The Truth?
John 16:5-16
Sermon
by King Duncan
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Sometimes fact IS funnier than fiction. According to a recent article in the New York TIMES, over the past 50 year authorities in the Soviet Union have been deliberately sabotaging their own maps of the Soviet countryside. Rivers, bridges, cities and coastlines have all been shown in wrong locations on maps or deliberately drawn incorrectly. Distance scales have been an absolute joke. Soviet theory, apparently, was that these errors made these maps useless to spies, invading armies, and the navigators of enemy bombers. Unfortunately, though, the maps were also pretty much useless to tourists and Soviet citizens.

We can draw two conclusions from this little piece of news. First of all it reveals to us the wall of fear which the Soviets have built around themselves over the last half century. We will need to keep in mind that deepseated fear as we watch the progress of disarmament talks between our two governments. But we see here also a very important question. The question is one that Pontius Pilate asked in his confrontation with Jesus. "What is truth?" How can I know what to believe in today’s world? How can I know whom to trust? Our text from the Gospel of John deals with these very real concerns. What is believable, credible, authentic? There are three places we can turn when we are confused about what is true.

FIRST OF ALL, WE CAN TRUST OUR OWN EXPERIENCES AND OUR OWN ABILITY TO REASON. We have a good brain. We can see and hear and feel. We can reason and decide between alternatives. When confronted with a new truth, first of all, we ask, "Does it make plain sense?"

Gene Ruyle in his book, MAKING A LIFE, tells a story about Eliazar Hull, the captain of a whaling ship, who sailed from the ports of New England in the early 1800s. Eliazar was able to sail out farther, stay out longer, and, in that way, come back with a larger catch than anyone else. The owners of the fleet, seeking to insure their ships against damage or loss at sea, asked that all ship captains be schooled in the latest navigational techniques of the day.

When Eliazar arrived for training, the instructors, who had long since heard of his amazing sailing prowess, asked him how he was able to navigate the vast distances of such lengthy voyages without losing his way. Eliazar said, "I go up on deck at night, and I look at the stars, and I listen to the wind in the riggings, and I check the drift of the seas, and then I set my course." After completing his course in the science of navigation, Eliazar returned home and resumed his maritime vocation.

Sometime later the instructors visited Eliazar and once again asked how he navigated his great ship. "Exactly like you taught me," he responded to everyone’s surprise, "I use the sextant to shoot the angle of the sun at midday. After fixing my longitude and latitude on the charts, I get out my compass and other instruments to plot my course. And then," he continued, "I go up on deck at night and I look at the stars and I listen to the wind in the riggings, and I check the drift of the seas...and go back down to correct my calculations." (1)

God gave us brains. He meant for us to use them. Do you have questions about the things of God? Is the Christian Gospel true? Test it in the laboratory of your own life. Does it work to believe that your body is the temple of the Living God and to take care of it? Does it pay to be faithful to your wife and to love and honor both your children and your parents? Does it pay in society to say, "Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not kill?" Does it help to pray for those who are sick and to believe that we can trust God for our lives and the lives of those we love? Can you think of a better alternative? Do you know of a better way to live than to love your neighbor as yourself? Is it true? What do you THINK? Trust your experiences and your ability to reasonup to a point.

We are all aware that our brains and our experiences can mislead us. Few thinkers have ever surpassed the immortal Greek philosopher Aristotle, and yet Aristotle made mistakes. For example, he taught that if a onepound ball and a fivepound ball of the same size were dropped at the same time from the same height, the fivepound ball would fall five times as fast as the onepound ball. That was reasonable, and for nearly 2000 years it was accepted as fact. But then Galileo dropped two such balls from the tower of Pisa. They hit the ground at the same time. One of the great thinkers of all time had been wrong. So can we be. Nevertheless we must begin our search for truth with a modest confidence in the reliability of our own brains.

IN THE SECOND PLACE, WE CAN TRUST THE EXPERIENCES OF OTHERS. That is an amazingly simple piece of advice, but it is astounding how few of us heed it. We could save ourselves a lot of heartaches if we did.

I was reading recently about Park Smith, a new RAF pilot in 1942 when the U.S. shipped the first Mustang fighter planes to England. Back then little trainingwas given to pilots. The extent of Park Smith’s preflight instruction in the new plane was, he says, a pat on the back and a few words of encouragement. However, the new Mustangs were so much hotter and faster than previous ones that 3 out of the 5 pilots in his class were killed trying to make the transition. There was a definite need for more instruction and less learning by trial and error! (2)

Most people approach life the way those RAF pilots learned to fly the new Mustangs. They do not learn from the experiences of others. Life is a matter of hits and misses, trial and error. Many people also experience a lot of unnecessary crashes that way.

Would you know truth? Listen to the testimony of others. Is Jesus Christ risen from the dead? I trust the testimony of Simon Peter and the other disciples, and St. Paul who encountered him on the Damascus Road. I trust that they really did see the Lord. Why? Because they gave their lives to back up their testimony.

I trust the Bible. I believe the Bible is God speaking to our world today. Particularly when it tells me about Jesus. I look into his face and find I am looking into the very face of God.

I believe in the testimonies of the great heroes of our faith like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley and others.

I am helped by more recent theologians like Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and great Christian souls like Paul Tournier and C.S. Lewis. These are people who are imminently trustworthywho discovered in their own lives the pearl of great price and who sold all that they had to buy that pearl. Want to know the truth? Pick up the Book. Pick up the works of great Christian writers.

I like something I once read about Harry Truman. A friend of President Truman arrived early in the morning and the President wasn’t up yet, but Mrs. Truman said, "Go right into his bedroomhe’d love to see you." So his friend, a prominent publisher, walked in, and there was the former President, sitting in a big chair with two stacks of new books on either side of his chair. He had obviously just gone out and bought all those books. His friend said, "Mr. President, as a publisher, I’m so pleased to see that you are buying all those books. I suppose you read yourself to sleep at night." Harry Truman answered, "No, young man, I read myself AWAKE." (3)

That is the purpose of reading the Bible and reading the testimony of the saintsthat we might read ourselves awakeawake to what God has done and awake to what God is doing. That is why we share together in Sunday School and in Bible study groups. We learn from the experiences of others. That helps us discern what is true and reliable. First, we can trust our own mindsthe minds God has given us. Secondly, we can trust the experiences of others.

FINALLY, WE CAN TRUST THE HOLY SPIRIT TO REVEAL TO US ALL THE TRUTH WE NEED TO LIVE OUR LIVES. Jesus knew that he would be leaving the disciples in a short time. He also knew that they still had many questions about the Kingdom. He wanted them to know that he was not leaving them without a Counsellor. Thus he promised them that, "All that the Father has is mine," and he went on to say that the Spirit also knows the mind of the Father and would reveal to them all the truth they needed to know.

That is important for us. We need help understanding the ways of God, too. True, we have the Bible and for that we are eternally grateful, but still we have questions.

There is a hilarious story about a country preacher who announced that he would preach on Noah and the Ark on the following Sunday. He gave the scriptural reference for the congregation to read ahead of time. A couple of mean boys noticed something interesting about the placement of the story of the Flood in the Bible. They slipped into the church and glued two pages of the pulpit Bible together. On the next Sunday the preacher got up to read his text.

"Noah took himself a wife," he began, "and she was..." He turned the page to continue,"...300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high." He paused, scratched his head, turned the page back and read it silently, turned the page and continued reading. Then he looked up at the congregation and said, "I’ve been reading this old Bible for nigh on to fifty years, but there are some things that are hard to believe." (4)

There ARE some parts of the Bible with which we struggle even without someone glueing the pages together. That is why we should always pray before reading the Scripture. That is why the Bible is rarely helpful when studied in Comparative Literature. The Bible is God’s Word revealed to a particular group of people in a particular set of circumstances and in a certain time far removed from our own. If the Bible is going to speak to us, we must approach it prayerfully. We need the interceding power of the Holy Spirit to help us translate that Sacred Word for the Twentieth Century.

Of course all of life should be "handled with prayer." Why? Because prayer is our contact with the mind of Christ. Prayer helps us interpret not only the Bible, but also our daily experiences.

I have seen miracles in my life, haven’t you? I know God’s grace is true because I have experienced it. Henry Ward Beecher recalled a difficult time from his childhood. His family was struggling to make ends meet. His mother was struggling with despair over the family’s misfortunes, but not his father, the great Lyman Beecher. When Mrs. Beecher suggested they were headed toward the poorhouse, Lyman responded, "My dear, I have trusted God now for forty years, and He has never forsaken me, and I am not going to begin to distrust Him now." Lyman Beecher knew what was true. He had experienced God’s sustaining power and he knew that he would experience it again. Such confidence comes only by prayer.

"All that the Father has is mine," said Jesus, "therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you." We CAN know the truth. The Gospel is truth! We can trust our own minds, we can trust the experiences of others who have been led by the Spirit, and we can pray that Christ by the power of the Spirit will reveal to us all we need to know for the living of this day. There is a hymn that expresses our need so beautifully:

I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
No sudden rending of the veil of clay,
No angel visitant, no opening skies;
But take the dimmness of my soul away.

That is a valid prayer regardless of our circumstances. How can we know the truth? With the help of One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.


1. (New York: Seabury Press, 1983).

2. Philip Markanna, "Ghosts," AMERICAN HISTORY ILLUSTRATED, XXIII (May, 1988), p. 25.

3. David McCullough, THE UNEXPECTED HARRY TRUMAN.

4. Loyal Jones and Billy Edd Wheeler, LAUGHTER IN APPALACHIA, (New York: Ivy Books, 1987).

Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by King Duncan