Rev Koay Kheng Hin
26 November 2023
Why is your heart troubled? Why is your soul not at rest?
These two questions are symptomatic of the human condition. Generally, it can be said that all of us aspire to live a life that is marked by a certain tranquillity and calmness that is opposite to the stress and anxiety that we so often experience.
This sermon endeavours to address these questions and is based on the understanding that a genuine rest of the soul can only be experienced in a spiritually vibrant relationship with the Person of Jesus Christ.
From Matthew 11:28-29, we learn of the invitation of Jesus to all who are heavy-laden and burdened in heart to come to him. It is only in him that those who are burdened in heart are able to find rest for their souls.
The sermon text for today is John 1:14.
14 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.
In this verse, John mentions the Incarnation of Jesus. His Incarnation was the full manifestation of grace and truth because it was the greatest possible expression of God’s compassion for people and the most perfect way of conveying the truth.
The Hebrew rendering of these two Greek words, grace and truth, are the two words love and truth found in both Psalm 26:3 and Psalm 40:10.
Grace is a multifaceted word that has a variety of meanings, the chief of which is love. Of the four gospels, it is only in the gospel of John that we find the word grace. Furthermore, John uses the word grace only in this first chapter of the gospel. In the rest of his gospel, John no longer uses the word grace but instead employs the word love.
Therefore, we can surmise that when John describes Jesus as full of grace and truth, he is essentially portraying Jesus as full of love and truth.
What does John have in mind when he mentions truth?
He is finally referring to the Person of Jesus, for in John 14:6, John writes that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
John uses the word truth 25 times and invariably links it closely with Jesus, who is the truth. In John 8:31-36, John emphasises the power of truth to liberate us from bondage to sin. Verse 32 reveals that there is an inherent power in truth to set people free from the power of sin. Verse 36 points us to the Person of Jesus as the truth. Finally, it is Jesus who sets us free from the power of sin.
In reference to the agitation of the soul, we need to realise that sin in our lives is a major cause of such agitation. We lose the rest of the soul when we sin.
It is because when we are in sin, we no longer can sense the presence of God in our lives, primarily due to the fact that, in the distraction of sin, we inevitably turn our eyes away from Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
The Hebrew writer mentions two causes of the restlessness of the soul. In Hebrews 12:1, he refers to not just sin but also the cares of the world, which can rob us of the rest of the soul. In both the temporal cares of the world and sin, we are drawn away from our spiritual focus upon Jesus. With eyes turned away from Jesus, the soul becomes restless.
The interplay of love and truth is best exemplified by the final hours of the life of Jesus.
Beginning from the discourse of Jesus in the Upper Room on that fateful Thursday evening until his crucifixion on Friday afternoon, Jesus demonstrated this twin expression of the fullness of love and truth.
John has by far the longest account of the Upper Room, though curiously, he says nothing about the institution of the Lord’s Supper.
In this lengthy discourse, Jesus’ emphasis is on love. The word love occurs only six times in chapters 1-12 but 31 times in chapters 13-17. The account begins with John 13:1, where John refers to Jesus washing the disciples’ feet as a demonstration of the extent of the love of Jesus for them.
If Jesus washing his disciples’ feet showed the full extent of his love for them, then it was in his interaction with the Roman governor Pontius Pilate that Jesus emphasised the theme of truth.
In John 18:37, Jesus admitted to being a king, not of this world but of the kingdom of God. Furthermore, he reiterated that he had come into the world to testify to the truth, the truth about himself. Jesus is the truth!
In a practical sense, apart from truth being the Person of Jesus, truth is also set against lies.
Truth is invariably revealed by Scripture. Scripture, being God-breathed, inherently reveals and expresses truth. Therefore, even as Scripture leads us to the revelation of Jesus (Luke 24:27), Scripture, at the same time, gives us the infallible framework to discern truth from falsehood.
We must know the truth in order to be set free from bondage to lies. To know truth, it is necessary for us to know Scripture well and obey its injunctions.
The two verses John 14:15 & 23 connect love with obedience to the truth of Scripture. Wrestle with Scripture, the Word of God. Read, meditate, and study Scripture! Most importantly, live out Scripture! Then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. You will then experience the presence of God in Christ and the rest of the soul in Christ.
In conclusion, as we compare Scripture with Scripture and read John 1:14 together with 2 Peter 3:18, we can discern three key words in relation to the experience of the presence of God and the rest of the soul.
Glory, love, and truth! The glory of Jesus mentioned by John in John 1:14 and by Peter in 2 Peter 3:18 is drawn from what they had seen during the transfiguration of Jesus (Matthew 17:1-2). To be able to fix our eyes (Hebrews 12:2) on Jesus requires us to walk in love, stand on truth, and ascribe all glory to God. Amen!
LOGOS 