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Welcome to day four of how to build a godly and manly foxhole.
0:34
I'm your host Kyle Thompson of Undaunted Life.
0:37
Let's get into it.
0:38
All right, guys, let's do a quick recap in days one, two and three of this devotional.
0:41
We spent some time diving into three different questions.
0:43
Those were what makes a godly man, what makes a manly man, and can you be both godly and
0:49
manly?
0:50
So in day one, we talked about what makes a godly man.
0:52
We talked about the truths that exist outside of the self.
0:55
That's the narrative of humanity that we all find ourselves in.
0:58
And then the second thing we looked at was truth displayed publicly, and that answers
1:01
the question, what makes a godly man?
1:03
And we listed those characteristics in day two.
1:05
We talked about what makes a manly man.
1:07
So at Undaunted Life, we have a definition of what a man is, and it's this, a man is
1:11
a male that cultivates spiritual, mental, and physical resilience daily.
1:16
We spent some time talking about deceased Navy SEAL, Adam Brown, and also Paul, especially
1:20
his second letter to his pupil Timothy.
1:23
And then in day three, we talked about whether or not you can be both godly and manly.
1:27
And we talked about how yes, of course, of course you can be godly and manly, even though
1:31
some people would tell you that that's not possible.
1:33
We looked at Adam Brown again as an example of that, but then we went deep into the story
1:37
of Nehemiah, specifically the first four chapters of the book of Nehemiah to talk about that.
1:42
So guys, we want to make sure that in order for you to have a good day for you need to
1:45
make sure you've listened to those first three days before you come back and take in this
1:49
days lesson.
1:50
So today, we're going to be focusing on this question.
1:53
Was Jesus a manly man?
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Now, you might be wondering yourself why we're focusing on the manliness side of Jesus and
2:01
not the godliness side of Jesus.
2:03
And if that's you smack yourself, I mean, come on, I mean, we're not talking about whether
2:08
or not Jesus is godly because well, in Jesus's own words, John 10 verse 30, I and my father
2:15
are one.
2:16
And if you need to know whether or not that's important, it's recorded later in John, John
2:19
14 verse six, that Jesus said, I am the way and the truth in the life.
2:23
No one comes to the father except through me.
2:25
So again, I'm just kind of saying that a little bit in just so we're not really going
2:28
to be focusing on the godliness part of Jesus because he's, you know, kind of God, but we
2:32
are going to focus on whether or not Jesus was a manly man.
2:37
So the quick and easy answer to that question is, well, yeah, duh, I mean, of course Jesus
2:43
was a manly man.
2:44
He was the manliest man because he was the sinless perfect man.
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And second Corinthians five, 21, we see this for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew
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no sin so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.
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But if I were to venture a guess, and I would say that many of you, if I had just come up
3:06
to you on the street and ask you to name me the manliest men you know of living or dead,
3:14
you would not even think to say Jesus.
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I'm dead serious.
3:20
Just think about that scenario.
3:21
Would you have said Jesus because you might say your dad or your grandpa or you might
3:28
say George Washington or Theodore Roosevelt or Ernest Hemingway or Jack London or John
3:34
Wayne or Clint Eastwood or Adam Brown or Jocko Willink or Joe Rogan or David Goggins or,
3:39
you know, on and on and on, you would probably just run off those names.
3:43
And why is that?
3:46
That's a really, really important question.
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Why would you think of culturally significant men either from politics or Hollywood or entertainment,
3:54
military, et cetera, and not the perfect sinless son of God?
4:00
Why not him?
4:02
And the answer might surprise you.
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I have a contention and my contention is that it's a lot the church is doing in the church's
4:09
fault why we don't think of Jesus when we think of a manly man.
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And so I think through this because there are two key periods in this for me.
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And the first was the industrial revolution.
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That's kind of the late 18th and early 19th century and then the two world war.
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So think early 20th century.
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So where were all the strong able-bodied masculine men during the industrial revolution?
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They were working.
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They were working, thankless or dangerous jobs, either underground or in a factory, something
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like that.
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I mean, these guys were working.
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So where were the strong able-bodied masculine men during the World Wars?
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Well, they were all fighting, right?
4:48
And in a lot of cases dying.
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So then we see the turn.
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So many of the manly men who would have otherwise gone into ministry, they died or they sought
4:59
employment elsewhere, right?
5:00
They they sought out other opportunities.
5:03
And then we see this sermon content, the focus of sermon content and music and decorations
5:09
and missions and different things like that, they all became a little bit more effeminate
5:14
during this time period.
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Now the turn was gradual, but not sure if it ever stopped.
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I don't think we've ever seen it stop even till the modern day, which kind of brings
5:24
to mind John one verse 14 and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and
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truth.
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Now, one thing that we see with sermon content during this time, and it has continued for
5:39
in large part, especially with some of these larger churches, is it went from truth and
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justice, you know, masculine type qualities to grace and forgiveness, which tends to be
5:50
a little bit more on the effeminate scale.
5:52
Now they're both good messages and they're both appropriate messages, but they're definitely
5:58
on either side, they're on different sides of this issue.
6:01
They're on different sides on the masculine feminine scale.
6:04
Now when you talk about music, the music went from singing the praises of the conquering
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just God to singing about Jesus, kind of like he's your boyfriend, you know, someone that
6:14
you just want to cuddle up with and warm up with by the fire.
6:18
And also we have a more pluralistic and relativistic and feminist culture now in modern society.
6:24
And that has kind of exacerbated this.
6:26
And what that all comes down to and it all combines into this is it gets us to where we
6:30
are today, where men are leaving the church and droves.
6:34
There's rampant fatherlessness all over the Western world, really all over the entire world,
6:38
especially in the West.
6:40
And then also we have Christianity losing its standing in the West because we have a church
6:46
that is so overwhelmed with trying to be like the culture when it's when they're in the
6:50
counterculture that they're the strongest.
6:53
Some of the fastest growing churches in the world are in China, North Korea and Iran, right?
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It's completely counter to the culture of those places.
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So I guess I begs the question that that has Jesus changed?
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And of course we would say, no, of course not.
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Jesus is 100% grace and truth, not 50 50, not 60 40.
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He's also 100% lamb and 100% lion.
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Now the modern church has changed our focus to where we're almost exclusively focusing
7:25
on the grace part or almost exclusively focusing on the lamb part, when they're essentially
7:30
ignoring the truth part of who Jesus was and who he came to be and the lion part of who
7:36
Jesus was and who he came to be.
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So let's talk about our Savior and Lord Jesus and let's see if we can figure out by looking
7:44
at some scriptural stories, whether or not he's a manly man.
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So we're going to start in Matthew 10 verse 34.
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This is Jesus talking, do not think that I've come to bring peace to the earth.
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I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
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So the Cambridge Bible commentary points this out.
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It says the contrast is rather between union and division than between peace and war, but
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essentially Jesus is not concerned about our comfort as much as he is concerned about God's
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truth.
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So that will surely cause some division and cause some consternation, but that's kind
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of a manly thing to do to stand up for God's truth.
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So that's a nice story.
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Then we get into Luke four.
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We're going to look at verses 31 through 37.
8:25
So this describes a situation where Jesus casts out a demon just with his voice.
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So here we go verse 31 and he went down to confirm him a city of Galilee and he was teaching
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them on the Sabbath and they were astonished at his teaching for his word possessed authority.
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And in the synagogue, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon and he cried
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out with a loud voice, "Ha, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
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Have you come to destroy us?
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I know who you are, the holy one of God."
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But Jesus rebuked him saying, "Be silent and come out of him."
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And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him having done
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him no harm.
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And they were all amazed and said to one another, "What is this word?
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For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits and they come out."
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And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.
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So Jesus casts out a demon, a powerful demon with his voice, with his voice alone.
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That's not bad, but let's take it up a notch.
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So now let's look at John 11.
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So this talks about the reclaiming of Lazarus from the dead.
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We've all heard the story, but we're going to get into it.
9:32
But here's the deal that most people miss.
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When Jesus arrived, post Lazarus's death, the Greek root word for his expression when
9:40
he arrived translates to snort with anger.
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Now, I don't know about you guys, but I have been so angry in my life before where I was
9:51
snorting with anger.
9:52
I was so angry.
9:54
That was Jesus' mindset when he showed up.
9:56
He wasn't whimpering.
9:57
He wasn't combing his beautiful dirty blonde hair.
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No, he was snorting with anger, okay?
10:03
So let's look at John 11, verses 38 through 44.
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Then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb.
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It was a cave and a stone lay against it.
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Jesus said, "Take away the stone."
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Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be
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an odor for he has been dead four days."
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Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of
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God?"
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So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you
10:31
that you have heard me.
10:32
I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around,
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that they may believe that you sent me.
10:38
When he had said these things, he cried out in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.
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The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face
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wrapped with a cloth.
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Jesus said to them, "Unbind him and let him go."
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So Jesus screamed at a dead guy and told him not to be dead anymore.
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That's pretty gangster.
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That's pretty manly, but it goes even further than that.
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When it said in the Scripture that he called out in a loud voice for Lazarus to come out
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of the tomb, that is the same Greek word that's used to describe the storm that nearly sank
11:20
the apostles' boat in Matthew 8.
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We see that in verses 23 through 27.
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I mean, the same word is used to compare Galeforce winds, hurricane style storm, and that almost
11:34
killed the apostles, right?
11:36
The same word is used that he used for his voice.
11:39
The same word.
11:40
But now we're going to get into my favorite story from Scripture, and this is from John
11:44
2, and this is verses 13 through 16, short story, but there's a lot packed into it.
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So let's look at verse 13.
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The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
11:54
In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons in the money changers
11:58
sitting there, and making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the
12:03
sheep and oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their
12:08
tables, and he told those who sold pigeons, "Take these things away.
12:12
Do not make my father's house a house of trade."
12:16
That is Jesus, okay?
12:20
That is our Savior.
12:22
Not right there, that's the Lion of Judah.
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Now there are a lot of things that are lost on a story like this, okay?
12:31
But I want to point a few of those things out.
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The first thing is that this was an example of premeditated aggression from Jesus, premeditated,
12:38
okay?
12:41
Because we see no sign that Jesus already had a whip on him when he arrived.
12:47
I don't remember anywhere from Scripture where it's talked about how Jesus walked around
12:51
with a whip on his hip, well, I just don't see that anywhere.
12:55
So Jesus either found a whip or what I would like to think, he made a whip.
13:02
He left, made a whip, and then came back, okay?
13:06
And it probably took a little bit of time for him to do that.
13:09
So it was premeditated aggression.
13:12
Then we also see this.
13:13
Not only was it premeditated aggression, it was sustained aggression, because again,
13:19
he drove out all of the men, the sheep, the ox, and he drove all of them out of the temple,
13:23
okay?
13:24
And there were likely not just a few of those people, right, and sheep and other animals.
13:28
There was probably a lot.
13:30
So you have to think about this.
13:33
This took a long time of him being aggressive, okay?
13:37
To clear the entire temple, it was sustained aggression, but in addition to his premeditated
13:42
aggression and the sustained aggression, we have this intimidating aggression.
13:47
So during this entire long process where he's clearing the temple, we have no evidence to
13:52
show and the scripture certainly doesn't tell us that anyone tried to intervene.
13:59
Think about how crazy of a situation that would have to be to where no one even tries
14:04
to stop him.
14:06
You know, I was just sitting down with some of the guys that are in my Sunday school class
14:09
and there was probably, you know, a couple of dozen people in there and we were talking
14:12
about the story and we were talking about what would happen if some stranger walked into
14:16
that room and started overturning tables and trying to drive people out with a whip.
14:20
Man, it would be a problem for that person, right?
14:23
I mean, for the most part, like for a lot of us guys, we've been training our entire
14:27
life for that exact scenario where we get to just wreck some dude for doing some sort
14:31
of craziness.
14:32
But can you imagine what would have to happen for some stranger to come into our room and
14:39
to be so intimidating that we wouldn't even think to stop him?
14:44
That is the exact scenario that Jesus found himself in in the temple.
14:47
Those people didn't even try to stop him because of his premeditated, sustained and
14:52
intimidating aggression.
14:54
So this leads me to a quote from from a very good book.
14:57
It's called why men hate going to church from the author David Murrow in the quotes here.
15:01
The line of Judah was very popular in fundamentalist churches as recently as a few years ago, but
15:06
even here his son is setting.
15:08
It's no wonder why he doesn't seem to be a very good Christian.
15:13
Because again, in this situation, Jesus was so angry at sin and he was so angry at somebody
15:20
disrespecting his father in his house that he was willing to go and do something that
15:25
by modern standards, we would see is probably sinful.
15:28
Oh, you, you probably, but shouldn't be that aggressive.
15:30
You shouldn't be that angry.
15:31
You know, let's just talk about grace.
15:32
Let's only, let's only worry about the grace part right now.
15:35
I'm sure there's a conversation that needs to be had and there's a relationship that needs
15:38
to be built with all these people.
15:39
No, at that moment, Jesus needed to respond and he did so in a very, very godly and manly
15:45
way.
15:47
So was Jesus a manly man?
15:50
You bet he was and still is.
15:52
I mean, he's part of the Godhead, the Triune God, the Trinity.
15:55
So he's godly in every way that it's possible to be godly, but he's also manly in the truest,
16:01
most perfect sense.
16:02
He is spiritually resilient, mentally resilient and physically resilient.
16:08
And there's a couple of stories that slam that at home.
16:10
We'll go into detail in one, but this story is from Luke four and this is the temptation
16:14
of Jesus.
16:15
So this is Luke four versus one through 11 and Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit returned
16:20
from the Jordan and was led by the spirit in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted
16:24
by the devil.
16:25
And he ate nothing during those days.
16:27
And when they were ended, he was hungry.
16:29
The devil said to him, if you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread.
16:34
And Jesus answered him, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone.
16:38
And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time
16:42
and said to him, to you, I will give all this authority and their glory for it has been delivered
16:47
to me.
16:48
And I give it to whom I will, if you then will worship me, it will all be yours.
16:53
And Jesus answered him, it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only
16:58
shall you serve.
16:59
And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him,
17:03
if you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here for it is written, he will command
17:07
his angels concerning you to guard you.
17:10
And on their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone.
17:14
And Jesus answered him, it is said, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
17:20
And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
17:25
Okay.
17:26
So this is a very important story of Jesus because he experienced every possible temptation in
17:33
those 40 days in the desert.
17:35
The devil was all over him.
17:38
Okay.
17:39
So let's work backwards.
17:40
Physical resilience, obviously going 40 days without food.
17:42
It's a bit of an issue.
17:43
I remember when I just recently tried to do a two day little fast and I made it about 30
17:47
hours.
17:48
So again, that's a hard thing for someone to do.
17:50
It takes a lot of physical fortitude and resilience, but also mentally, you're wandering through
17:55
the desert.
17:56
This is a tough situation.
17:57
You're hungry or thirsty.
17:59
And also you got this pesky little ultimate demon that's, you know, basically on your
18:02
shoulder, screwing with you the whole time, but then the spiritual resilience in these
18:07
situations, when the devil presents something to him that seems reasonable for him to respond
18:13
in kind with scripture every time.
18:16
Even when Satan starts quoting scripture to Jesus incorrectly, obviously being the father
18:21
of lies that he is, but to respond in such a way that it shows unbelievable spiritual
18:26
maturity, right?
18:28
That is super, super manly again, if we're talking about spiritual mental and physical
18:32
resilience, that is a tremendous example of that.
18:36
But guys, if you need that to be slammed home, even harder, then just go look at the gospels.
18:42
And specifically, I'm going to give you Matthew 27 versus 27 through 50, okay?
18:47
So in these scriptures, Jesus is mocked.
18:51
He's crucified and then he dies.
18:54
Now, I'm not going to read that to you.
18:57
I want you guys to read that one on, on your own because obviously being Christians, as
19:01
most of you listening to this are and if you're not, we're so glad that you're here digging
19:04
through this material.
19:05
But as you read through the gospels, it can seem like just something that happened pretty
19:11
quickly or flippantly.
19:13
I mean, again, from Matthew 27 versus 27 through 50, we see Jesus being mocked, crucified and
19:18
then dying.
19:20
It's a very quick thing to read.
19:21
It might just take you a couple of minutes, but this was a sustained amount of horrific
19:26
torture that Jesus went through until he finally died.
19:31
Just imagine the amount of spiritual, mental and physical toll that you would be going
19:37
through in those moments and we had Jesus crying out at different points, crying out, asking
19:43
his father why he's forsaken him, just the anguish that he was going through.
19:48
But ultimately he sustained himself.
19:51
He sustained himself in that moment.
19:52
He studied himself and he went through with the entire process, even though he could have
19:57
delivered himself from it.
19:58
Again, most of us are never going to have to go through something even vaguely similar
20:03
to that.
20:04
And so I think all of those stories that I went through from the very first one all the
20:08
way through this last one, we're talking about the crucifixion and death of Jesus prove that
20:13
he was a manly man and it's a super easy flow chart, right?
20:17
So if you ask, was Jesus spiritually mentally and physically resilient, which is what we
20:21
talk about here at Undaunted Life as being a man?
20:23
Easy.
20:24
Yes.
20:25
He's a manly man.
20:28
Did Jesus cultivate spiritual, mental and physical resilience daily, he's again, flow
20:32
chart.
20:33
Yes.
20:34
So he is a manly man, period case closed.
20:38
Are guys, before you move on to the next thing, here are some questions for you to ask yourself.
20:43
Number one, if asked to quickly make a list of manly men that you know of, would Jesus
20:48
have been on your short list?
20:50
If not, why do you think that is again, guys, I kind of made my contentions earlier in the
20:54
episode by be interested to hear if that would be for you?
20:57
Cause I did ask a lot of guys that same question and all of them answered, man, I would not
21:01
have thought of Jesus.
21:02
And these are good solid Christian dudes and it just never occurred to them.
21:05
All right.
21:06
Second question here, are you more familiar with the lamb of God or the lion of Judah?
21:11
So depending upon your answer on this question, it'll kind of give me a better idea as to
21:15
the type of church you go to or the church that you grew up in in terms of what they spend
21:18
the majority of the time focusing on.
21:20
And then the last question is this, do you hate sin like Jesus hates sin?
21:27
Again going back to him clearing the temple.
21:30
He didn't do that.
21:31
He didn't get angry because it was some sort of like a road raised situation, like like
21:34
this nonsense situation, it was tremendously righteous indignation and anger that he showed
21:40
in that moment because he hated sin.
21:44
He didn't allow it to creep in.
21:45
He didn't allow it to kind of hang around him.
21:47
He hated it so very much.
21:50
So you got to ask yourself, do you hate sin like Jesus hates sin?
21:53
All right, guys.
21:54
For more content like this, check out the rest of our podcast episodes wherever you get
21:57
your podcast and don't forget to leave a review and a five star rating and check out our website
22:01
at www dot undaunted dot life.
22:05
Make sure you come back tomorrow for day five where we introduce the concept of a foxhole.
22:10
Until then keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual mental and physical resilience.
22:16
seeking the Lion of Judah.