January 8, 2012 / the masculine mandate – Introduction and chapter One
  1. Introduction
  2. Welcome and Icebreaker: What is your image of a “Man’s Man”?
  3. Discussion Question: How are men portrayed in American culture?
  4. Looking for:
  5. Passive
  6. Led/dominated by Women
  7. Sensitive bordering on feminine (or completely feminine)
  8. Overgrown Boys
  9. Follow-Up: “What are some factors that have led to men losing their way in American/Western culture?”
  10. Sons growing up without Fathers
  11. Feminism
  12. Western pursuit of ease and comfort
  13. Class and Book Overview
  14. The Masculine Mandate
  15. (Here, we want to juxtapose the typical images of a man’s man in the icebreaker, the portrayal of men in American culture, and a third: Man as defined and described in Scripture)
  16. Introduce Masculine Mandate – pricing, etc.
  17. Aim of Phillips: “to help men to know and fulfill the Lord’s calling as it is presented so clearly to us in God’s Word.” (Pg Xiii)
  18. Part One: Understanding our Mandate
  19. Class One: Introduction and Man in the Garden
  20. Class Two: The Masculine Mandate and Man’s Call to Work
  21. Class Three: Man as the Image of God and Shepherd-Lord
  22. Part Two: Living our Mandate
  23. Class Four: Marriage: Design and Curse
  24. Class Five: Marriage and the Masculine Mandate
  25. Class Six: Work and Keep: Disciplining Children
  26. Class Seven: Men in Friendship and the Church
  27. Class Eight: Servants of the Lord and Class Conclusion
  28. Man in the Garden
  29. Man? Go to the Garden
  30. Biblical References to the Garden
  31. Matthew 19:4-6
  32. 1 Timothy 2:11-14
  33. Phillips posits, rightly, that if we want to understand who we are to be as men, we should go back to the earliest teachings as found in Genesis 1 and 2.
  34. An objection could arise here, so let’s address it now. What about the Fall? Doesn’t that change everything? Two Answers:
  35. Yes, it did change everything. Man went from dwelling in blissful perfection, enjoying face-to-face communion with God, in a Garden fit perfectly to him, to cast out from the Garden and alienated from God.
  36. But it didn’t change the fundamental teaching as found in Genesis 1 and 2. Jesus and Paul, knowing full well the state of Man, referred back to it with authority, so we can too. But what is more, salvation is a story between two Gardens – the Garden of Eden, and the New Heavens and New Earth, which is one big garden where in we will dwell, again, face-to-face with God in Christ. So we should, here and now, be striving for God’s kingdom to come, and for His will to be done, and part of that is for Men to be Men as He has defined and commanded in His Word.
  37. Who We Are: Spiritual Creatures
  38. Genesis 1:26-27, 2:5-8
  39. The first thing we need to notice, when we look to Genesis 1 and 2, is that Man was made in the image of God. What this means will be more fully explored in our 3rd class, but for now we should recognize a couple of things.
  40. We are not animals. We’re different than them, and it’s down to how we were made. Chesterton: We tell our people all the time not to be animals, and then we insist on teaching them in school that that’s precisely what they are.”
  41. We are Spiritual Creatures, made so by being given the breath of life, or otherwise called a soul. (Job 27:3 – Job compares having breath with having the Spirit)
  1. Where God Put Us: Garden vs The Wild
  2. Genesis 1:28, 2:8
  3. Main Point: Man is to be Covenantal
  4. God made Man not to be a solo quester, or a pursuer of individual identity.
  5. God made Men to be in Covenant. Covenant with Him, and Covenant with Others. Despite being made in the image of God, and despite being in face-to-face communion with Him, God still declared a “not good” over Man. And that was because he was alone. He needed a helper to aid him in his calling to be fruitful, multiply, fill and govern the earth.
  6. This goes against a common and popular notion, made by John Eldredge in Wild at Heart. Eldredge suggests that man naturally belongs in the ‘wild’, because he was made outside the garden, and put in it. While this technical point may be true, the important thing to remember is that God did, in fact, put Man in the garden. This is where He wanted him, and where he was called.
  7. Say little more, having not read the book. But perhaps emphasize the positive again: God made us to be in covenant, and to express and find our manhood in that.
  8. Discussion Question: What are the dangers of viewing manhood as primarily one of questing, rather than covenanting?
  9. If endless self-interested pursuit is what we’re to be about – if our hearts are undomesticated – then it’s important to note that that’s precisely what we were doing before we were saved. I did nothing out of a sense of covenant or community before coming to Christ. I did what I want, and what I wanted was to maximize my own pleasure and self-identity. This is not what Christ is, and it is not what he’s called us to.
  1. What We Are: Lords and Servants
  2. Genesis 1:28
  3. Man was called to a purpose: to be fruitful, to multiple, to fill the earth and subdue it through God-given dominion. He has his quest. He needs no others.
  4. Discussion Question: Where has God called you to be a servant leader (said another way, where has He called you to be in covenant)? Where is He calling you, and how are you preparing for that?
  5. How We Obey God: Work and Keep
  6. Genesis 2:15
  7. So if Genesis 1:28 tell us the what, Genesis 2:15 tells us the how. How do we fulfill our calling as men? Phillips suggests two words: Work and Keep.
  8. Work: To work is to labor to make things grow. Synonyms are nurture, cultivate, tend, build up, guide, and rule.
  9. Keep: To keep it to protect and to sustain progress already achieved. Synonyms are guard, keep safe, watch over, care for, and maintain.
  10. Conclusion
  11. Masculine Mandate Defined: To be spiritual men placed in real-world, God-defined relationships, as lords and servants under God, to bear God’s fruit by serving and leading.