Welcome to the Daily Blade . The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit , the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil . Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson , and they stand ready to equip men for the fight . Let's sharpen up .
All right , guys , I don't know about you , but I am super excited for the next two days . But this week we are using John Eldridge's book Beautiful Outlaw to help us get to know the personality of Jesus better , and before preparing these episodes for this week , I did ask John what were the five chapters that really encapsulate his point about bringing out the personality of Jesus , and he said chapters 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , and 7 . So that's what we're going to put our focus on , and seven . So that's what we're going to put our focus on . Yesterday we talked about chapters two and three , where we began to see many of us . You know what we've been missing this entire time , and that's that Jesus had a personality , and then we look specifically at the playfulness
of Jesus the man . But for the next two days we're going to look at chapter four of John Eldredge's book , and that's fierce intention . And so the beginning of chapter four dovetails nicely with the conclusion of chapter 3 , so I'll go ahead and read it here . And so he's going to start with Matthew 16 , verses 21 through 23 .
Speaker 2From that time on , jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders , chief priests and teachers of the law , and that he must be killed and , on the third day , be raised to life . Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him . Never , Lord , he said . This shall never happen to you . Jesus turned and said to Peter get behind me , satan . You are a stumbling block to me . You do not have in mind the things of God , but the things of men . Hold on now .
Speaker 2This doesn't sound very playful . What are we to make of the sudden mood change that erupts from Jesus like thunder from a clear sky ? If your children acted this way , you'd send them into their rooms . Whatever we have here , we certainly don't have a
man of mild emotion or two-dimensional passivity . For some reason , we keep forgetting that Jesus is operating in enemy territory . We project into the gospel stories a pastoral backdrop , that quaint charm of the Middle Eastern travel brochure picturesque villages , bustling markets , smiling children and Jesus wandering through it all like a son come home from college . We forget the context of his life and mission .
Speaker 2His story begins with genocide , the massacre of the innocents , herod's attempt to murder Jesus by ordering the systematic execution of all young boys around Bethlehem . I've never seen this included in any crochet scene ever . Who could bear it ? You must picture ethnic cleansing , as the 20th century saw in Bosnia , rwanda , burma , atrocity the ground soaked with the blood of children who five minutes earlier were laughing and playing .
Speaker 2Now this is where Beautiful Outlaw really starts to get my attention . I'm even getting a little upset here just reading that line , because I have very , very young children just thinking about that . But again , remember how we always think about Jesus being portrayed in the Gospels just this kind of , you know , wispy-haired Danish guy just going through with his soft features , telling everyone how much he loves them and how cute the women look in their tunics and all that . And so at this point in the book I'm getting very , very pumped to dig into this chapter because of where I figured John Eldridge was going and more on that tomorrow . But he caught my attention with an occurrence recorded in the book of John that had never struck me in the way that it did until reading Beautiful Outlaw , and that's the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead . So let's go back to Beautiful Outlaw here .
Speaker 2Oh , jesus could be soft and he certainly was humble , but his fierce intentionality is riveting to watch . Look at him before Lazarus's tomb . This is John 11 , verses 17 , and then 32 and 33 . On his arrival , jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days . When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him , she fell at his feet and said Lord , if you had been here , my brother would not have died . When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping , he was deeply moved in the spirit and troubled .
Speaker 2This expression deeply moved in spirit and troubled seems unhelpfully vague . I'm deeply moved when someone remembers my birthday and Oxford Don , who loses his notes , is troubled . We're not even close to the true nature of his mood . Yet the root of the Greek word here means to snort with anger like a war horse . So let me explain that line to you well adjusted men out there , because me , as a
crazy ginger with a crazy personality , I understand what snorting with anger is . I totally understand that where you can't even like get words to come out of your face because you are so angry . Jesus hates sin and he hates death and and he knows what he's there to do , but he's so angry that he's snorting in anger . Right ? Does that sound like the wispy haired guy that I was talking about a second ago . Let's go back to beautiful outlaw here . Something fierce is rising up in him . A second round of this war horse anger wells up , and this is verses 38 through 43 .
Speaker 2Jesus , once more deeply moved , came to the tomb . It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance . Take away the stone , he said . But Lord said , martha , the sister of the dead man , by this time there is a bad odor , for he has been there four days . Then Jesus said did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God ? So they took away the stone . Then Jesus looked up and said Father , I thank you that you have heard me . I knew that you always hear me , but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here , that they may believe that you sent me .
Speaker 2When he said this , jesus called out in a loud voice Lazarus , come out . Oh , to have heard this command , heard the mightiness in his voice . John uses the word loud to describe it . He uses this very same word to describe the ferocity of a storm that nearly sank their boat . Apparently , jesus' command here reminded John of the intensity of a storm . Jesus doesn't ask Lazarus to come out . He doesn't suggest that he do it , he commands him to life . With the rumble of thunder and the crack of lightning , obediently , lazarus comes hopping out like a mummy , and this is verse 44 . The dead man came out , his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth wrapped around his face . Jesus said to them take off the grave clothes and let him go . Jesus finishes his business here with , you know , very business-like order to take off the grave clothes and let him go , like a hostage negotiator who has just freed a victim .
Speaker 2Now , guys , could Jesus have just snapped his fingers and raised Lazarus from the dead ? Yep , sure could have . Could Jesus have just called out in a calm , soothing and safe for the whole family voice and raised Lazarus from the dead ? Yeah , absolutely . But he didn't . He called out in a loud voice Because he's got a flair for the dramatic . No , it's because it was , in his perfect , omniscient view , completely necessary to do it that way . Sometimes , especially when it comes to pushing back the darkness of sin , we have to get loud because Jesus got loud . All right , guys , come back here tomorrow where we are going to be doing part two of Fierce Intention and , guys , we're covering some of my favorite stories in all the Bible , so don't miss tomorrow .
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go . If you want to help equip other men for the fight , share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review . Stay sharp .