Download the masculine mandate * Introduction and chapter

January 8, 2012
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THE MASCULINE MANDATE – INTRODUCTION AND CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
a. Welcome and Icebreaker: What is your image of a “Man’s Man”?
b. Discussion Question: How are men portrayed in American culture?
i. Looking for:
1. Passive
2. Led/dominated by Women
3. Sensitive bordering on feminine (or completely feminine)
4. Overgrown Boys
ii. Follow-Up: “What are some factors that have led to men losing their
way in American/Western culture?”
1. Sons growing up without Fathers
2. Feminism
3. Western pursuit of ease and comfort
Class and Book Overview
a. The Masculine Mandate
i. (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)
ii. Introduce Masculine Mandate – pricing, etc.
iii. 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)
iv. Part One: Understanding our Mandate
1. Class One: Introduction and Man in the Garden
2. Class Two: The Masculine Mandate and Man’s Call to Work
3. Class Three: Man as the Image of God and Shepherd-Lord
v. Part Two: Living our Mandate
1. Class Four: Marriage: Design and Curse
2. Class Five: Marriage and the Masculine Mandate
3. Class Six: Work and Keep: Disciplining Children
4. Class Seven: Men in Friendship and the Church
5. Class Eight: Servants of the Lord and Class Conclusion
Man in the Garden
a. Man? Go to the Garden
i. Biblical References to the Garden
1. Matthew 19:4-6
2. 1 Timothy 2:11-14
3. 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.
January 8, 2012
THE MASCULINE MANDATE – INTRODUCTION AND CHAPTER ONE
4. An objection could arise here, so let’s address it now. What
about the Fall? Doesn’t that change everything? Two Answers:
a. 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.
b. 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.
ii. Who We Are: Spiritual Creatures
1. Genesis 1:26-27, 2:5-8
a. 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.
i. 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.”
ii. 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)
iii. Where God Put Us: Garden vs The Wild
1. Genesis 1:28, 2:8
2. Main Point: Man is to be Covenantal
January 8, 2012
THE MASCULINE MANDATE – INTRODUCTION AND CHAPTER ONE
a. God made Man not to be a solo quester, or a pursuer of
individual identity.
b. 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.
c. 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.
d. 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.
3. Discussion Question: What are the dangers of viewing
manhood as primarily one of questing, rather than
covenanting?
a. 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.
iv. What We Are: Lords and Servants
1. Genesis 1:28
a. 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.
January 8, 2012
THE MASCULINE MANDATE – INTRODUCTION AND CHAPTER ONE
2. 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?
v. How We Obey God: Work and Keep
1. Genesis 2:15
a. 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.
i. Work: To work is to labor to make things grow.
Synonyms are nurture, cultivate, tend, build up,
guide, and rule.
ii. Keep: To keep it to protect and to sustain
progress already achieved. Synonyms are guard,
keep safe, watch over, care for, and maintain.
vi. Conclusion
1. Masculine Mandate Defined: To be spiritual men placed in realworld, God-defined relationships, as lords and servants under
God, to bear God’s fruit by serving and leading.