Jesus:Liar, Lord, or Lunatic

Jesus: Liar, Lord or Lunatic

Following the Servant
Mark 3:20-35

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. . . . Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.”      -C. S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity”

By claiming to be God, Jesus left us only three options,
and we see an example of each of these in this passage:

In spite of Jesus’ popularity, His own family thought He’d lost His mind and was acting like a crazy man, and the religious leaders were accusing Him of being a liar whose powers came from Satan.  Jesus responds to this latter accusation, and we see a genuine response from some.

1.    Jesus’ family assumed He’d . (vv. 20, 21)

Luke 19:48

The Christian family is knit together by something stronger than human blood: .

Mark 6:3

It wasn’t until that His brothers would finally believe in Jesus as their own Lord and Savior. It just took them awhile.  James and Jude even wrote New Testament letters.

At this time, it was probably a mix of family duty that brought them to Jesus.

Do you have a growing sense of family with God?

How are we supposed to relate to our unbelieving family?

You can’t change it but you can be committed to .

Embrace the reality that you now live with to both your natural family and the supernatural family of God.

2.   The religious leaders thought Jesus was a liar (vv. 22-30)

 John 8:44

Jesus has .

“The unpardonable sin is to knowingly, willingly, and persistently attribute to Satan the works of God done by and in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, who testifies to these truths in your heart.”
(1) It is not a sin of ignorance.
(2) It is an ongoing attitude of the heart that resists the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
(3) It is a verbal act that attributes the works of the Holy Spirit to Satan.
(4) It is a willful rejection of God’s grace in Jesus.
(5) It is rooted in unbelief.
(6) It is a sin a Christian cannot commit.
(7) It is a sin not committed by one who is concerned that he may have committed it.

Hebrews 6:4-6

No forgiveness is possible for someone who refuses to .

3.    Jesus’ followers acknowledge Him .  (vv. 31-35)

the only relationship to him that really matters is not a physical relationship but .

True conversion has always been marked by to God’s Word.

John 8:31, 32

John 14:15

1 John 2:4

Romans 8:12-16; Galatians 4:4-7

“In order to follow Christ we have to deny ourselves, to crucify ourselves, to lose ourselves. The full, inexorable demand of Jesus Christ is now laid bare. He does not call us to a sloppy half-heartedness, but to a vigorous, absolute commitment. He calls us to make him our Lord. The astonishing idea is current in some circles today that we can enjoy the benefits of Christ’s salvation without accepting the challenge of His sovereign lordship.”
-John Stott, “Basic Christianity,”

Becoming part of the family of God begins when we in Jesus, which is a sovereign work of His will, not ours (John 1:12-13).

Daily Meditations
 
Memory verse: “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”Mark 3:35
 
Monday
Read Mark 3.  What are some reasons people might think Christians are crazy today?
 
 
 
According to verse 21, why did Jesus family think He was ‘out of His mind’?
 
 
 
Tuesday
Read Mark 3. According to verse 27, who is the ‘strong man’ and who is ‘robbing’him?
 
 
 
Wednesday
Read Mark 3.  Why would the scribes sent by the Jerusalem Sanhedrin come to the conclusion quickly that Jesus was collaborating with Satan?
 
 
 
Can you think of any examples today of people attacking Christianity using ridiculous logic?
 
 
 
Thursday
Read Mark 3.  What do we learn about all sins (yours and mine) from verse 28?
 
 
 
How would you counsel a Christian who was concerned that he or she had committed the unpardonable sin?
 
 
 
Friday
Read Mark 3.  How does Jesus’ statement about doing the will of God fit together with the fact that one comes into right relationship with God only through faith?
 
 
 
How does Jesus’ statement about His spiritual family being those who do the will of God function as motivation for world missions?
 
 
 
Saturday
Read Mark 3.  What aspect of salvation is emphasized in John 1:12-13 and what aspect is emphasized in John 3:14-16?
 
 
 
What do you find most beneficial about being in a new family?