While playing college football during my freshman year, I was challenged by a question raised by a popular campus speaker, Josh McDowell. His talk focused on one question: “Is Jesus Liar, Lunatic, or Lord?”

Luke 23 – Jesus is the Messiah

I grew up with very little information about Christianity and maybe attended Sunday School a dozen times. Sports had been my god, and someone was asking me the question that Luke presents in his book Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. In Luke 23, he details the record of Jesus’ trial before Pilate and Herod and two Roman soldiers who struggled to find Jesus guilty. The rest of the chapter describes Jesus’ death on the cross and burial in a tomb.

The Christian apologist C.S. Lewis said, “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 a 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.”

The Kingdom Coach and Athlete affirm Jesus’s identity and authority, as did one of the criminals who was crucified next to Him. They believe Jesus is the Son of God and willingly gave up His life for their sins. They know neither they nor their team can put Jesus on the shelf as a great moral teacher; evidence strongly favors Jesus as being much more.

Journaling helps you understand and respond to the Bible. As you journal, use the acronym HEAR to Highlight, Explain, Apply, and Respond to what you have read in the reading plan.

Bible Memory Verse – “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 LSB

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