March 17: Jesus is God? (Changed Title)

Is Jesus a liar or a lunatic, or is He God? This is the question we all must answer. There are a lot of views regarding this. Sadly, even in Christendom there is debate. Our session this week will dive deep into this debate and help everyone understand more fully that the Jesus we follow truly is the Son of God.

Some want to relegate Jesus to being a great teacher, a wise philosopher, or a gifted leader.  But when you come to realize who Jesus really is  and understand that you are a sinner and He is our Savior because He is the Son of God, you can't conclude anything else except, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." If you refuse to confess this, then you are quickly approaching what Jesus describes in Mark 3:29 as the unforgivable sin.

The Supplemental Teaching Ideas are driven by a lot of explanation and discussion around the response of Jesus' family to His claims and how Jesus' explains His identity to the Scribes. There is also a great deal of time focused on helping the group understand the "unpardonable" sin.

The LOOK UP portion of the teaching ideas uses statistics provided by Barna from a 2015 Survey. The illustrations to the right are from that survey.

Different Session Title, TARGET, and Expanded Passages

• The title I am using for this session is different than that listed in the Explore The Bible Study Guide. The title I am using is, "Jesus is God?" because this seems to be the primary focus of the passage. His family thought He was a lunatic and the scribes thought he was demonic for saying this.
• The TARGET of the supplemental teaching plan will focus on answering the question, "What does it mean to confess that Jesus is the Son of God?"
• The plan will also expands the focal passage to include Mark 3:20-35.

Background Study
The following videos are provided to help you understand more fully the passages. They are sermons from John MacArthur and are quite lengthy, but I would recommend them as background helps.

The Unpardonable or Unforgivable Sin

LifeWay's Explore the Bible Blog provides a good explanation regarding this passage that you might find useful as well. CLICK HERE TO READ

DOWNLOAD THE SUPPLEMENTAL TEACHING IDEAS

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