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 .
Many so-called men's ministries are dead before they ever get going . Now , there are many reasons for this , but the main reason is because most of them are just women's ministries that have been repackaged for men . Does that make sense ?
They try to artificially create male community while ignoring many of the things that lead to true male community in the first place .
So , in other words , they might succeed in getting guys to become buddies that show up to the same room at the same time and act well-behaved while they're there every now and again , but they fail to lead these men to forge true godly companionship a real foxhole of men that they can depend on . So that is what we're going to focus on this week .
Each day , we will talk about a different element of godly companionship , and here's the reason why I'm doing this . Some of you think that you're special , you think that you're unique . You think , when a guy like me talks about godly companionship , that it somehow doesn't apply to you , and I intend to disabuse you of that notion this week .
The first element we're going to cover is this Godly companionship is present . Godly companionship is present . Godly companionship is present . So we'll be in John 11 today , but to set the stage a little bit . Back in John 10 , jesus was in the temple in Jerusalem and he declared I and the Father are one . To the Jewish leaders .
They considered this to be a clear form of blasphemy and they were going to stone Jesus to death . But we see in verse 39 that Jesus was able to escape across the Jordan . So at least from the chronological narrative of the book of John we see that Jesus and the apostles were experiencing a fairly dramatic time .
Now in chapter 11 of John we see the death of Lazarus . But right from the jump here we need to be clear about something Lazarus wasn't just some dude . He wasn't a random acquaintance of Jesus . Lazarus was Jesus's boy . Right , I mean , these guys were tight when Jesus was in Bethany . He essentially used Lazarus's place as home base .
Amongst others contributes to the desperate confusion of Mary and Martha , lazarus' sisters , after they sent for Jesus when Lazarus fell ill . Lazarus ends up dying and Jesus never shows , at least not yet . So let's go to John 11 and we're going to look at verses 14 through 16 . Then Jesus told them plainly Lazarus has died .
And for your sake , I am glad that I was not there so that you may believe , but let us go to him . So Thomas called the twin , said to his fellow disciples , let us also go that we may die with him . So I mean doubting Thomas really . Is that how we're going to remember this guy ? More like gangster Thomas .
But I digress , he is not the point of today's message . Okay , so Jesus makes his way to the town where Lazarus died , and we'll pick back up starting in verse 32 . Now , when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him , she fell at his feet saying to him Lord , if you had been here , my brother would not have died .
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping , he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled and he said where have you laid him ? They said to him Lord , come and see Jesus wept .
Now , if you've spent any time in church or around the Bible , you likely know that Jesus ends up raising Lazarus , his buddy , from the dead . Just , you know an absolutely incredible scene .
But I want us to go back to verse 35 , the shortest verse in the Bible , the verse that you likely boldly raised your hand and volunteered to memorize at church camp as a kid Jesus wept , jesus wept . Now a lot of ink has been spilled , looking into the significance of these two words . You know why would God incarnate weep ?
You know why would Jesus be upset if he knew what he was about to do , and so on and so forth . But today I want to zoom in on one thing who was with Jesus when he wept ? Who was there when he got the news that Lazarus , his buddy , had died ? Who was there on the road with him during his journey to go back to bethany , like ? Who was with him ?
Who was there when he was confronted by mary ? His apostles were his men , were his hand-picked foxhole , the men he had godly companionship with when j Jesus was so anguished and moved to the point of tears . His men were present . And that is what makes these men consequential .
They weren't just buddies from afar that Jesus might see every year or two for a fantasy football draft or a golf trip or a jujitsu tournament . These dudes were there . So here's my question for you to ponder today Are your consequential friends present ? See you back here tomorrow .
Thank 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 .