The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth

Good evening and welcome to our worship service on this Wednesday evening I'm pastor Jacob Hanneman from shepherd of the plains lutheran church in fort morgan So yes, the wind blew me in and it'll blow me back. So it'll be okay But it's always an honor and a privilege of sharing god's word with you So I look forward to worshiping with you this evening We'll follow the order of worship as it is printed for us in our service folder as we continue the theme of It is finished looking at the looking at the prophecies of zachariah and seeing how The events of holy week truly was a planned thing as chaotic as it all looked God had a plan He knew what he was doing and we see that by looking at the prophecies about that event hundreds of years in advance And so we will begin our service with the with our opening with the opening order of service prayer at the close of day Please rise let us confess our sins to god and ask for his forgiveness almighty god merciful father I confess to you that I have not loved you with all my heart And what I have done and left undone I have pursued my ways instead of your ways I have not loved my brothers and sisters as myself For this I deserve your punishment both now and in eternity I am truly sorry for my sins I repent of them I beg for your mercy. Oh lord Forgive us for the sake of jesus christ who suffered and died for us The almighty god has been merciful to us and has sent his son to die for all For his sake god forgives our sins and calls us from darkness to his marvelous light Therefore as a called servant of christ and by his authority I forgive you of all of your sins in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit Passion history for this evening comes to us from matthew chapter 26 verses 1 to 35 When jesus had finished saying all these things he said to his disciples You know that after two days it will be the passover And the son of man will be handed over to be crucified Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled to the place of the high priest whose name was caiaphas They plotted together how to arrest jesus by stealth and kill him But they said not during the festival Or else there might be a riot among the people When jesus was in bethany in the house of simon the leper A woman approached him holding an alabaster jar a very expensive perfume She poured it on his head as he was reclining at the table But when his disciples saw this they were upset and said Why this waste this perfume could have been sold for a lot of money and given to the poor Jesus was aware of this and said to them Why are you causing trouble for this woman? She has done a beautiful thing for me. You are always going to have the poor with you But you are not always going to have me When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial Amen, I tell you wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world what this woman has done Will also be told in memory of her Then one of the twelve the one named judas is scarier Went to the chief priest and said What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you? They paid him 30 pieces of silver from that time on judas was looking for an opportunity to betray jesus On the first day of the festival of unleavened bread the disciples came to jesus saying Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the passover? He said go into the city to a certain man and tell him the teacher says my time is near I will observe the passover with my disciples at your house The disciples did as jesus commanded them and prepared the passover When evening came jesus was reclining at the table with the twelve As they were eating he said Amen I tell you One of you will betray me They were very sad and began to say to him one after another Surely not. I lord He replied the one who dipped his hand in the bowl with me will betray me The son of man is going just as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed It would be better for that man if he had not been born Judas who betrayed him replied Sure, not. I rabbi He said to him. Yes You are the one While they were eating jesus took bread blessed and broke it and gave it to the disciples He said take eat. This is my body Then he took the cup gave thanks and gave it to them saying drink from it all of you For this is my blood of the new testament, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins I tell you that I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now from now until that day When I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom After they sang a hymn they went out to the mount of olives Then jesus said to them this night. You will all fall away on account of me For it is written. I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered But after I have been raised I will go ahead of you into galilee Peter answered him even if all fall away because of you I will never fall away Jesus said to him. Amen. I tell you tonight Before the rooster crows you will deny me three times Peter said to him even if I have to die with you I will never deny you And all the disciples said the same this is our passion history We continue now with the hymn of the day hymn number 397 Grace mercy and peace are yours from god our father and our lord and savior. Jesus christ. Amen Our lesson for this evening comes to us from zechariah chapter 8 verses 14 to 17 This is what the lord almighty says Just as I had determined to bring disaster on you and showed no pity when your ancestors angered me Says the lord almighty So now I have determined to do good again to jerusalem and judah Do not be afraid These are the things you are to do Speak the truth to each other and render true and sound judgment in your courts Do not plot evil against each other Do not love to swear falsely I hate all this declares the lord This is the word of the lord the defendant took the stand Beads of sweat were dropping down his face You see this defendant knew that he was guilty What he had done was illegal. He knew it was illegal and he did it anyway but the thing was is that The prosecutors and the detectives still hadn't found enough evidence to make it a slam dunk case They really needed a confession And so he's on the stand What should he do? If he tells the truth he's in trouble He's probably going to jail but He could lie And he just might get away with it but If he's caught in that lie Well, then he's in really big trouble the moment of truth the bailiff comes tells him to raise his right hand and says Do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god We have a god who loves the truth And he hates lies But on the flip side there is the devil who is called the father of lies and he hates the truth and they are always trying to buy or earn our obedience They're always trying to win us over are we going to follow the way of truth or the way of lying Why does god hate the hate lies so much? Because it's destructive It destroys everything With one lie, you can destroy someone's reputation almost entirely and forever Marriages can be broken families can be split apart businesses can go under But even worse than that lying leads to hell God hates lying because of the destruction and damage it does mainly to our soul Even lying deserves a place in hell. In fact every lie Deserves a place in hell and god made that absolutely clear To the people in zacharias day in our lesson During zacharias time he was serving a people who was really rebuilding They had just gone back they had spent some time but had really just gone back from a 70 year deportation to babylon Why were they deported? Because they were living alive On the outside. They look good. They look like the people of god the people god chose had chosen from the very beginning They went to church all the time they did their sacrifices They did business like they were supposed to they try to honor all the holy days and the holy festivals They looked the part of the people of god in every way But it was all a lie Because their hearts were never in it as isaiah says You're on the outside You worship me But your lies follow but your lips follow rules by men you do not listen to me You only proclaim it you act like it, but your hearts are not in it And that continued on for many years The people would go to church, but they didn't really care after worship. They'd go to their homes and worship their idols Because that's where the real progress the real The real joys the real treasures were found They would do the sacrifices But they wouldn't give the best of their props or the best of their herd They would do business the way they were supposed to they would even observe the sabbath day At least on the outside, but really behind the scenes. They were breaking the sabbath trying to find a way To do more business to work with somebody to find a way to get somebody else to do their work So that they could still make money even on that day off and when they did business They looked like they were following the weights and standards of the day, but really They were adding unnecessary weight So that they could make more money And then they were changing the weight so that they wouldn't have to spend as much money They were truly living a lie. They were not following the ways of god And god warned them through isaiah through jeremiah Through all the other prophets if you keep this up, I will deport you there is a reckoning coming You will be sent to babylon But the people thought god was joking. They thought he was lying to them That is until it happened babylon came The city was destroyed the people were deported and worse yet the temple was burned down The people found out the hard way that when god tells the truth, he tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth And while we might love the truth of his promises, he also tells the truth of what he will do about our sins And we need to take That heavy heavily we cannot take him lightly When zachariah served the people have been brought back the lord had determined to do good and he kept his word He brought him back. He was blessing them. They were rebuilding the temple rebuilding the city. Everything was going great But zachariah did have a message for him. He said don't go back Learn the lesson Don't go back to old habits Don't start living a lie again Over 400 years later were the people still listening to the words of zachariah Were the religious leaders valuing the truth that they only speak the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth when we Look at the events of holy week We might wonder was there any truth? In the lips of those people at all Was there anything true that came from jesus? Trial was any truth spoken while he faced? All those trials with anis then kfs then pilot then herod then pilot again Was a single ounce of truth mentioned Did they follow anything? zachariah said In fact, it seems like they just completely turned their back on every command zachariah gave them Here's the first this is what god wanted them to do Speak the truth to each other. Well, they told lies during that whole trial They couldn't even agree on one of on any of the lies. They just kept going with lie after lie after lie after lie They no longer valued the truth Because the truth didn't fit into their agenda They needed jesus to be gone and if it meant lying then so be it And if they were willing to turn their back on that well, they definitely turned their back on the rest Zachariah then says render true and sound judgment in your courts There was no sound judgment in jesus trial It was false witness after false witness It was do anything and say anything to get jesus Arrested and then it was do anything to say anything to get pilot to agree To crucify him There was no sound judgment And that is because they didn't follow the other rule do not plot evil against each other Well, that one went way out the window long before holy week They had been plotting jesus death for a long time. In fact, they wanted jesus gone for for over a year by now And they weren't going to arrest him and kill him during holy week But it was to them the miracle of miracles judas came out of nowhere and said I will betray him and they're like great Unexpected this is awesome. Let's do it Jesus wasn't included in in this command in their opinion And then finally says do not love to swear Also They swore to pilot that jesus was a troublemaker They testified in court that jesus was trying to overthrow caesar's throne They were willing to do whatever it took Just to get their way And every time we watch it, don't we just shake our heads and say look at the injustice Look at what they were able to get away with these were the leaders These were the ones that the people trusted to Uphold the law These were the people who were supposed to make sure everything was fair And they weren't being fair at all and they were getting away with that and really that makes us furious We hate stories like that. We hate hearing in the news how the stronger has has taken advantage of the weaker We hate how people in high positions get away with scandals left and right as if The laws don't apply to them, but they obviously apply to us We want things to be fair. We want everything to go, right? We don't Want to hear About the injustices. We don't want to hear about lies winning over the truth In fact, we want the truth and everything we want everything exposed We want nothing to be redacted but everything out to be out in the open with a Spotlight shining on all of them Which is why we we never lie, right? Why we always uphold the truth We tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth because we hate lying just as much as god, right? But we do love the truth but there are times far too often right that We're just like the religious leaders that we love the truth until it's inconvenient If we know it's going to hurt someone's feelings, well, you don't want to be the one that breaks the truth to them We would rather lie than face that struggle We would rather lie than confront that sin We would rather lie than admit We were wrong there are times where we Follow the ways of the father of lies By lying just to get out of anything And why is that a lot of times it's fear fear of the consequences But it's the fear of what the truth sometimes brings the truth hurts doesn't it When we have to tell somebody that the truth when they say what do you think of this and we honestly critique them We know it's going to hurt their feelings Or when someone is going down the wrong road, we know that when we step in and say hey you need to stop doing this They're going to fight back. They're going to dig their heels in a lot of times and they're going to fight you maybe even disown you And when someone catches us in a falsehood or in a wrong The last thing we want to do is admit that we're wrong Because then how does that make us look? We know we're sinners we know we make mistakes all the time and yet the funny thing is we Try to live and act as if that never happens Who are we fooling? Jesus knows the truth hurts He lived it I asked earlier was there an ounce of truth in jesus trial and there was it just wasn't from his enemies It was from jesus though He told the truth the whole time He told the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth but look what it got him He was asked are you? the son of god I am And that got him a sentence of blasphemy They beat him they spit on him. They made fun of him You are a king then said pilot I am a king Not of this world, but I am a king Well, here's a cross for your troubles, oh king and a sign above you that says king Of the jews as we mock you for being such a king The truth hurt jesus mightily And yet he loved telling it He loved telling the truth that all of it. He wanted to he looked forward to it One is because he loves everything his father loves and his father loves the truth But the other reason is is because he loves you He knew what the truth would get him and get him across They get him face to face with the wrath of his father It would get him the fires of hell They give him death But he knew what that death would do It would set you free Jesus tells us the truth will set you free and it's exactly what happened. He told the truth nothing but the truth And he set you free from all your sins He set you free from the consequences of the lies you have ever told in your life The lies to yourself the lies to others the law the greatest lie of all i'll never do that again I'll never make that mistake again. I'll never sin against you again god Even that sin was forgiven every single one of them All because god told the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth So that we could bask in the glory of the truth That we are children of god and heaven is our home and that is the absolute truth And we must cling to that truth because that father of lies. He doesn't want you to believe it The devil is very clever. He knows how to use the truth to his advantage. He'll tell just enough truth So then he could set up the lie So that you can say well that's true that's true that's true therefore this also must be true He'll point his boy bony finger at you and he will say look at what you've done Look at the lies you've told look at the lies you live Look at all that you've ever done wrong. You know what you've done, you know every mistake you've made that regret that you have From who cares how many years ago? Oh, that's still true that's you that's who you really are you deserve to go to hell therefore There's no way god loves you There's no way john 3 16 is talking about you. You're not part of that world He's talking about a different world The good people world the people who didn't sin the people who didn't make that mistake the people who tell the truth And too often we believe them Does it make sense Because he is right about the first part, right? We we are guilty. We are sinners. We are liars And we deserve hell Even for the little lies because there's no lie that's small in god's eyes But when we're not listening to the truth of what our god has to say Then we will be duped into thinking that means that god doesn't love you, which is the biggest lie ever told Because the truth is that your god does love you The truth is you are part of the world that god loves that he came to say the truth is Your sins are completely forgiven because jesus crushed the devil's head destroyed death and paid for all your sins but the only way we will know the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth is if we stay connected to The only one who will always tell the truth And that is the one who loves the truth and that is our god So let's cling to that truth Let's cling to the one who can't lie The one who's always going to tell us like it is Especially when it comes to our salvation Let's stop listening to the father of lies And listen to the father of truth And only then will we be truly set free And out of thanks for god let us also live in that truth by telling the truth Let's not be afraid of the pain that might come when we confront sin or when we admit our mistakes Because what's the point of telling the truth to lead us to repent so that god can truly forgive us So let's love that truth, too So that we can remain children of god forever Let's love that truth Because in the truth we are free free as children of god, amen Please rise for prayer Gracious lord according to your will and promise You planned his path to the cross He confronted the blindness of unbelief the confusion of doubt and the hurt of death As we hear and contemplate the holy record of our savior's passion and death Humble us as we view the savior in his humility In his suffering show us our healing And in his death show us our life Please be seated we continue now with our next hymn hymn number 396 the almighty and merciful lord father and the son holy spirit bless and keep us Once again, it is an honor and a privilege of sharing god's word with you, please I pray that you all drive safely and that you all have a wonderful lenten season as you continue to see Your god's love and his plan for your salvation And as we all know as we go through this lenten season, we're all looking forward to the great celebration Of easter sunday, so lord's blessings on your lent and happy easter lord's blessings to you You