Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

General

Cateogry game

Everyone believes something about Jesus.

Gandhi believed Jesus was an innocent man who voluntarily sacrificed himself for the good of others.

Martin Luther King Jr. described Jesus as “an extremist for love.”

Muslims believe Jesus was the second most important prophet, after Muhammad, and Judaism labels Jesus as a false prophet.

Vincent van Gogh said that Jesus was “a greater artist than all other artists… [a] matchless artist.”

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Communist Soviet Union, said that “Jesus was the first socialist.”

Buddhism teaches that Jesus was an enlightened man, and Hinduism suggests Jesus was a holy man akin to a saint.

A very popular opinion widely held in our culture and almost universally believed in New Age spiritual movements is that Jesus was a wise moral teacher.

It’s really hard to put Jesus in a category, as Martin Buber, a 20th-century Jewish philosopher, pointed out.

“I am more than ever certain that a great place belongs to him in Israel’s history of faith and that this place cannot be described by any usual categories.”

C. S. Lews, scholar of ancient literature, professor at Oxford and Cambridge, and author of The Chronicles of Narnia (as well as many other books), very eloquently argued that we have to put Jesus in some category, and that category cannot be “wise moral teacher.”

Because Jesus claimed to be God, He cannot be just a good moral teacher, but rather must be either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord and God He claimed to be.

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.

“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 patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher.

He has not left that open to us.

He did not intend to.”

Personal

Jesus is difficult to categorize.

Everyone believes something about Jesus.

Gandhi believed Jesus was an innocent man who voluntarily sacrificed himself for the good of others.

Martin Luther King Jr. described Jesus as “an extremist for love.”

Muslims believe Jesus was the second most important prophet, after Muhammad, and Judaism labels Jesus as a false prophet.

Vincent van Gogh said that Jesus was “a greater artist than all other artists… [a] matchless artist.”

Buddhism teaches that Jesus was an enlightened man, and Hinduism suggests Jesus was a holy man akin to a saint.

A very popular opinion widely held in our culture and almost universally believed in New Age spiritual movements is that Jesus was a wise moral teacher.

Everybody believes something about Jesus.

What do you believe about Him? Was He a prophet?

A leader of civil disobedience?

The mobilizer of a peaceful rebellion?

A wise moral teacher?

Or is He something more?

Biblical

You might be thinking, “Gee, didn’t we just ask this question in a recent sermon?”

Yes, we did.

The Gospel of Mark forces us to ask this question at every turn in the book.

In every chapter, in virtually every scene, we are faced with the question: Who Is This Man? Yet again this morning, Mark will challenge us to decide what we believe about Jesus—to put Jesus in a category unto His own.

The Lord, Liar, Lunatic argument didn’t originate with C. S. Lewis.

Marks spells out these categories for us in his Gospel today.

All through this scene in Mark 3:20-35, Mark is writing Lord, Liar or Lunatic with a big question mark, and here’s his challenge to all who read this book:

Subject and Text

Into what category will you put Jesus?

What will you believe about Jesus?

Body

Story

Big Idea

Big Idea

While some think Jesus is a lunatic and others accuse Him of being a liar, those who do God’s will acknowledge Jesus as Lord.

Some people believe Jesus is crazy and others say He is evil, but the people who are obedient to God recognize Jesus for who He really is.

Implications/Options

C. S. Lewis’s Lord, Liar or Lunatic Argument

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 patronising 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.

If Jesus is not Lord, then He is either a liar or a lunatic.

Jesus is neither a liar nor a lunatic.

Therefore, Jesus is Lord.

Implications/Options

Category 1: Jesus is a lunatic.

Jesus is mentally insane.

Accusation

Answer

Jesus is clearly not a lunatic.

Philosophers, psychologists, and historians—including non-Christians—agree that Jesus’s teaching, particularly the Sermon on the Mount, is some of the most profound, insightful and innovative teaching in human history.

This is not the work of a madman or the ravings of a lunatic.

Jesus was not mentally ill.

Mark 3:32-

Jesus’s response to His family was, “I’m not out of my mind.

You think I’m a lunatic because you don’t understand who I Am or what I’m doing.

You think you know me, but you don’t.”

Illustration: Michael’s story (http://www.precious-testimonies.com/BornAgain/d-g/Fackerell.htm)

“I grew up in a Christian family.

I was baptized as a baby in the Dutch Reformed church.

Dad would always read a portion of the Bible after the evening meal and we learned to pray before meals.

As a result, I grew up with lots of knowledge of the Bible.

I thought I was a Christian because I believed the Bible was God's Word and that Jesus died for me.

However, Jesus was not really the Lord of my life.