Lead:

Many people think they know Jesus. What was His response?

Intro:

Remember back in Mark 3 how Jesus’ own brothers thought He was a nutbag? Remember how we talked about this as significant because both James and Jude became Jesus-followers after the resurrection? As we learn to reason about the truth claims of Christianity, that’s an interesting bit of evidence. What changed? Sean McDowell, whose Ph.D. thesis was looking that the probability of martyrdom of the apostles, concludes that for James it was “very probably true.” So it’s one thing to become a “Christian,” so to speak, but it’s another to die some tortuous death. People don’t do that for something they know to be a lie.

Today we catch the next chunk of Abraham’s story, but we’ve also got a longer chapter in Mark one which illuminates another angle of what you might call the “scandal of familiarity.” We’ll talk a little more about that on the other side.

Sponsor:

Would you kindly give a shout out somewhere? Thanks for spreading the Word.

Old covenant:

Passage: Genesis 16-18:15
Translation: NCV (New Century Version)
Verses: 59
Words: ~1398

Wisdom:

Passage: none today
Translation: NCV (New Century Version)
Verses:
Words: ~

New covenant:

Passage: Mark 6
Translation: NCV (New Century Version)
Verses: 55
Words: ~1185

Commentary:

Here’s the thing: Many people think they know Jesus. The world certainly has its share of false Christs. Our heart should be one of compassion. What we do is meet real needs, including the greatest one, with an offer the Good News. The rest is up to God.

Love you!

-R

ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

Sources and resources:

(1) See Sean’s Book, The Fate of the Apostles. https://www.amazon.com/Fate-Apostles-Sean-McDowell/dp/1138549134

#998: Genesis 16-18:15 | Mark 6 | Scandal of familiarity