Redefining Masculinity Through the Teachings of Jesus

In the beginning was the logos. And our English text says the word, which is confusing, and the logos was with God. It's like the word was with God, what? And the logos was God. Now this was a showstopper. And here's why. Ancient Greek philosophers, now I'm gonna take you way back like, you know, three to 400 years before Jesus, okay? Back when the Greeks kind of ruled the world and the Persian wars and all that stuff. [00:12:10]

And they had this pantheon of gods, the smart Greek philosophers, you know, the Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and beyond that they recognized, they recognized, well, first of all, they were fed up with the gods because they were smart. And they recognized there's more to creation and there's more to life than these fickle gods. And they suspected there was something outside the gods or behind the gods. [00:12:36]

Because they recognize there's such thing as virtue, and there's such a thing as wisdom, and there's such a thing as justice. And then they stumbled upon the fact that there's some, there's are true things. There's truth, none of which reflected the character or the behavior of their gods. In fact, the gods reflected the very worst of human nature. Why? Because they were created by humans. [00:13:03]

So the gods were lustful and the gods were malicious, and the gods were power hungry, and the gods were devious, and the gods were unpredictable. And one day they were this way, and one day they were that, and they were at war with each other. And the smart philosophers were like, okay, we don't know if we don't know what's going on in the world of the gods, but we know there's something beyond all of that. [00:13:24]

The existence of virtue, the existence of wisdom and justice. It was undeniable. It was undeniable that these things existed. But what do you call 'em? What do you call this? It's not a god. It's an inanimate, but catalytic, powerful, good, that stands from the gods. So you know what they referred to it as? Logos, logos, word. [00:13:48]

In fact, it's bigger than word. It's more like information. They didn't know what else to call it, word. It's an impersonal, it's intangible, but undeniable reality that intersected and benefited humanity. And then they stopped, that's as far as they got. Now think about this, John, this is amazing. That's why you should read the Bible. [00:14:14]

John sits down to start the story of Jesus. And he's like, where do I begin? I mean, I was like toe to toe, hand to hand, eye to eye, face to face with this human being that was God in a body. So he opens his gospel by declaring that logos was not an it after all. And logos was not a god. This is why this statement is so powerful. [00:14:38]

Logos was God. And he had shown up as a man, a man who embodied wisdom and embodied justice and embodied truth, an embodied virtue. And he says, all at best, I don't know any other way to explain it. And this logos he wrote goes on, he says, and the logos became a man, became a person, became flesh. [00:15:07]

And he made his dwelling among us. He camped out with us. This isn't ethereal, this isn't religious, this isn't spiritual experience. He's like, no, no, no, I'm talking about he was a person. Like we hugged each other like we held hands. Like we did life together. And we have seen his glory again, not in a dream and not in a vision. [00:15:35]

He's, oh, no, no, no, I mean, I physically, we physically saw his glory, the glory of the one and only best way to describe him, son, who came from the father absolutely full of grace and truth. He was not a balance of grace and truth. He was full on grace. He was full on truth all the time. And it was amazing. [00:15:56]

He's saying, look, I camped with him. I gathered firewood with him, I fished with him, I hauled nets with him, I mourned with him. I cleaned fish with him, and it was amazing. And he was like no other. And he was fearless. John would say we feared the priest. They controlled our destiny, our standing in society. He was fearless with the priest. [00:16:20]

John will say, I was there when we went to the temple. Next thing I know, he's putting together braiding something. I'm thinking for maybe a woman's hair. No, he makes a whip and he kicks over tables and creates glorious chaos in the temple. And he was not afraid. And he faced down these powerful money changers. Then he immediately switches gears, turns around and begins healing people and touching the untouchables. [00:16:47]