Expert: Rev. Robert Woods - 11/27/2010

Question
Good Evening Rev. Woods,
My name is Kristine and I have a question that I am hoping you can help me with. I have this lady who asked me to help her and her husband write a Men's Day Welcome Speech for them. Where I need help on is the Scriptures. Where can I find scriptures on Christian Men in the Bible?

Answer
Blessings and thank you for your question.  I am not sure exactly what you are asking for.  So I am going to try several approaches.  

1.  Christian Men - there are several great examples of Christian Men in Scripture.  The obvious ones come to mind Jesus, Paul, Peter and John.  But other examples would be:

a. Barnabas was one of the first members of the Jerusalem church formed after the Day of Pentecost. He set an example of selfless generosity in keeping with his name (Acts 4:36). Barnabas’s life was soon interwoven with that of the apostle Paul. Barnabas was the first person in the Jerusalem church to risk contact with Paul after his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:27). Later, the Jerusalem elders entrusted Barnabas with a mission to Antioch to check out a Gentile church that had formed there (Acts 11:22). Barnabas teamed with Paul on the first missionary journey reported in Acts (Acts 13), and after he and Paul separated, Barnabas led his own missionary team (Acts 15:39).
Throughout his life as a Christian Barnabas lived up to his name, for in Hebrew idiom “son of consolation” simply means “consoler,” or “encourager.

b. Timothy:  In the early church, itinerant ministers who traveled from place to place maintained communication between the apostles and local congregations and between congregations. Timothy frequently fulfilled this role as he went to various churches on missions for Paul.
Timothy is named with Paul in the salutation of four New Testament letters (Philippians, 1, 2 Thessalonians, and Philemon), but most of what we know about Timothy comes from the two letters of instruction and encouragement Paul wrote to him. Indeed, the letters to Timothy have had a more lasting impact on the church than did Timothy himself.
Paul enlisted Timothy as a companion on his second missionary journey. Luke noted that Timothy was the son of a Jewish woman and a Greek father. According to Jewish custom that traces Jewishness through the mother rather than the father, this meant that Timothy was a Jew. Timothy became a believer at an early age, taught by his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois (2 Tim. 1:5). Timothy may have been in his early twenties when he began traveling with Paul, who would have been closer to fifty. Paul obviously valued Timothy, and referred to him as “my fellow worker” in Romans 16:21, and three times mentioned sending Timothy to churches as his representative (Phil. 2:9; 1 Thess. 3:2; 2 Thess. 1:7).
At the same time it is clear from the letters Paul wrote to Timothy that Timothy lacked the confidence and the powerful presence of the apostle. In urging Timothy to let “no one despise your youth” (1 Tim. 4:12), Paul seems to have had Timothy’s timidity in view, as well as the fact that in the first century wisdom and authority were associated with age. It must have been difficult for the relatively youthful Timothy to represent the apostle Paul and expect churches to respond to his authority.
In a real sense, anyone who is expected to step into the shoes of giants, as the second generation of Christian leaders surely was expected to do, faces a daunting task. Yet Timothy, Titus, and others like them maintained the integrity of the church, helped to preserve its deposit of truth, and continued the spread of the gospel throughout the world.

2.  Being a Christian man.  When I dedicated my life to Christ as a young adult, I really had no real example of a Christian man to model after.  Even after I became a father I still had no model to look toward.  In my spiritual growth, Promise Keepers was one of the best teaching tools for me to learn, grow and understand what a Christian man should be.  These are the seven promises of a promise keeper with the scripture references to go with them:

Promise 1: To honor Jesus Christ through worship, prayer, and obedience to God’s Word in the power of the Holy Spirit. omans 12:1-2). Psalm 95:1-7; 98:2-3, Proverbs 3:5-6, Jeremiah 3:3-13, Luke 18:1, John 4:23, Acts 2:38-39, Romans 12:1-3, 1 Corinthians 6:19, Galatians 2:20, 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10, 2 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 12:1-11, 2 Peter 3:11, Revelation 4:8-11.

Promise 2: To pursue vital relationships with a few other men, understanding that he needs brothers to help him keep his promises.”  Ecclesiastes 4:12 Genesis 14:12-16, Job 16:1-5, Proverbs 17:17; 27:17, Ecclesiastes 4:9-11, Matthew 4:18-22, Mark 14:32-34, Luke 6:12-16, Acts 20:32-38, Romans 15:30-33, Colossians 4:7-9, James 5:16, 1 Peter 5:4-10, Hebrews 10:24, 3 John 3-4.

Promise 3: To practice spiritual, moral, ethical, and sexual purity.
(Hebrews 4:15-16a) Exodus 20:3; 33:12-17, Joshua 7:6-12, 1 Kings 11:1-12, 1 Chronicles 29:17-18, Psalm 101:2-4, Proverbs 11:1; 19:5; 20:11, Ecclesiastes 7:11-12, Song of Songs 2:4-7; 7:1-13, Micah 6:6-8, Matthew 4:1-11, Romans 16:19, 1 Peter 2:11-22.

Promise 4: To build strong marriages and families through love, protection, & biblical values.  (Ephesians 5:25; 6:4 Genesis 2:22-25, Deuteronomy 6:1-9, Ezra 9:12, Esther 2:10-11, Job 1:1-5, Psalm 127:1-5, Proverbs 5:15-20; 17:6; 18:22; 22:15; 31:10-31, Song of Songs 2:1; 4:1-7; 5:16; 8:6-7; 8:13-14, Joel 1:2-3, Mark 10:6-9, Acts 16:14-15, Hebrews 13:4.

Promise 5: To support the mission of his church by honoring and praying for his pastor and by actively giving his time and resources.
(1 Timothy 5:17) Genesis 45:8, Malachi 3:10, Matthew 25:14-30, Luke 14:26-27, John 17:15-19, Acts 4:32-37; 5:12; 6:1-5; 11:29-30; 28:7-10, Romans 12:4-8, 2 Corinthians 9:6-15, Galatians 6:3-6, Philippians 4:10-18, Hebrews 10:25, 1 Peter 2:4-5; 4:8-11.

Promise 6: To reach beyond any racial and denominational barriers to demonstrate the power of biblical unity.(John 17:20b-21)Genesis 11:1-8, Leviticus 19:32-34, Numbers 25:1-18, Ruth 1:16-17, Psalm 133:1; 199:63, Proverbs 6:1-35; 22:2, Isaiah 53:1-12, Luke 10:25-37, Acts 10:24-33, 1 Corinthians 1:10-17; 3:3-9, Ephesians 2:14; 4:2-3, Revelation 5:9; 7:9; 14:6.

Promise 7: To influence his world, being obedient to the Great Commandment (Mark 12:30-31) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). Exodus 1:15-27, Nehemiah 2:17-20; 5:14-18, Psalm 82:3-4, Proverbs 1:1-6; 19:17; 28:27, Matthew 7:15-20, Mark 12:30-31, Acts 5:38-39, Romans 10:14, 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, 2 Corinthians 9:6-11, 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10, 2 John 4-6.



I hope this helps.  If I haven't given you what you wanted just ask again.