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As we continue to make our way through Luke's Gospel, we have paused for an extended period of time to learn more about the apostles that Jesus chose, and so therefore this is part three of what I've entitled "The Choosing of the Twelve." And we're going to look at Andrew and James this morning. Let's look at Luke chapter six, beginning with verse 12. We read that,

"It was at this time that Jesus went off to the mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.

"And when day came, He called His disciples to Him, and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as apostles:

"Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew, his brother; and James and John;"

We looked at Peter last week. Today we will look at Andrew, his brother, and James. Before we look at these dear brothers, I must say that I find myself constantly amazed at how God selected ordinary men and shaped them into extraordinary apostles that would literally set the world ablaze for the gospel. You know, as you think about it, true ministry is always counterintuitive. It is never what normal human beings in their fallen state would ever come up with. The divine strategy for ministry never makes sense whatsoever from a human perspective, it's counterintuitive to human thought, certainly, at odds with much of the modern church growth movement. I mean, think of God's plan. First of all, he decides to send God to Earth as a baby, born in obscurity, and let him be a part of the most hated group of people on the planet, and they remain that way even to this day. And let him be a part of a group that's living in self-righteous apostasy, live in obscurity, virtually no earthly possessions. Don't give him a ministry headquarters. Don't give him any visibility necessarily. Give him three years of ministry where he would constantly be telling people what they absolutely do not want to hear. My, that's a great strategy. Wander around in about a 60-mile circle and attack all of the religious elite literally make fools out of them, expose their hypocrisy, never try to gain their support, never try to find common ground. There was no sitting around the fire with the Pharisees singing Kumbaya. Spend time with the poor, the uneducated, the social misfits, the outcasts, and never surround yourself with celebrities that can somehow open doors for you. No, no, no, no. Instead, choose uneducated, untrained, and in some cases unwanted social misfits to be your representative. Preach a message so utterly offensive and ridiculous that even your countrymen will cry for your blood. Then ultimately die an ignominious, an excruciating death on a Roman cross, condemned for crimes that you never committed. Sounds like a plan, right?

That was God's plan and look at the result: the kingdom of God continues to advance even to this day. You know we don't even have to look back at God's plan - overall plan of redemption, and what happened in the life of Jesus - just look at the plan in your own life. Aren't you amazed that he would save you by his grace? I am. Oh, amazing grace! And I'm so thankful when I think about what God has done. To look back at the apostles, I'm looking forward to seeing them someday, and because we will have perfect insight in heaven, they will know me, and I will know them. They will know you. Andrew, what's up? Good to see you. So glad to meet you finally. And I'm thankful for the countless examples that God has placed in my life of godly people that would speak truth into my life I want to frame what we're going to look at today with a text found in Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13 verse seven says, "Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. It's interesting, isn't it? You have three present tense action verbs: remember, consider, and imitate. And when we do that, the divine intention here is that this will help us run the race that God has set before us. It's essential to our sanctification, and I cringe when I see the celebrities the world remembers, considers, and imitates people that would scoff at those whom God would have us remember, consider, and imitate.

I want to frame what we're going to look at today with a text found in Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13 verse seven says, "Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith." It's interesting, isn't it? You have three present tense action verbs: remember, consider, and imitate. And when we do that, the divine intention here is that this will help us run the race that God has set before us. It's essential to our sanctification. I cringe when I see the celebrities the world remembers, considers, and imitates; people that would scoff at those whom God would have us remember, consider, and imitate. Many of whom are right in this room. To be sure, in First Corinthians one, we read that there's "not many wise...not many noble..." that He chose to set His love upon. It says, "the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God."

But as we think about the apostles, I want us to also think about others in our life. Remember, consider, and imitate. And by the way, this was of profound importance to that original audience: early Jewish believers who were tempted to fall back into old covenant legalism, Judaism, because of the mounting persecution that they were beginning to experience by those that they knew and loved in many cases. And I would ask you: Do you remember the unnamed ordinary people that probably nobody else even knows that God used to speak truth into your life and to shape your life over the years. Those people who loved you enough to tell you the truth of the gospel even when you didn't want to hear it, even when perhaps you were skeptical, or indifferent, even hostile toward them. Dear friends, to forget those people is a supreme dishonor to them, and a certain sign of ingratitude to God, who brought them into your life. Do you consider, as the text says, the result of their conduct? Do you ever think about the outcome of the life of those that invested in you, the effect of their manner of living? Do you ever consider the lasting fruit in their life of which you were able to partake? You consider how they ran their race without fainting. They never wavered. They finished well.

Beloved, never ignore your spiritual roots or laugh at previous generations, as if they had nothing to offer, as if they were not as sophisticated as we are today. Because if you sever your roots, your tree will die. Do you imitate their faith? Those who loved Christ, those who lived out that example before you, those that led you in the paths of righteousness, so that you would not compromise and fall prey to strange doctrines and the godless trends of the culture that surrounds us. How sad to hear a eulogy where none of these things are ever mentioned because they didn't exist. My, it's a hard thing as a pastor to preach a service for someone who didn't love Christ. Worse yet, for someone who said they did, but showed no evidence of it in their life. May I remind you that God commanded even the second generation of Israelites to remember their mighty deliverance from slavery in Egypt, so that they would be encouraged to possess the land of Canaan. You read about that in Deuteronomy seven. Also in Jeremiah two, he told the Israelites to remember their past devotion to the Lord as a way of motivating them to remember the faithfulness that they owe him.

Now, of course, we don't simply imitate meager men; we imitate their likeness to Christ, and that's what we want to reflect upon. In fact, John Owen, the great theologian in the Puritan era at Oxford, said this, "We are not to follow mere men, not even the best of men, as our model and example in all things is Christ alone. But," he says, "we can learn to emulate Christian graces where we see them displayed in Christian leaders." Maybe you're like me. I can think back over the years, and by God's grace, I had godly grandparents, and I had godly parents. Many of you knew them. They used to sit right over there, until Dad couldn't hear anymore, and then they had him back there with the headphones on. They're in glory now. I praise God for those people. I praise God for my little Swedish Sunday school teachers at Bethany Baptist Church in Moline, Illinois, where Nancy and I grew up. By the way, they are celebrating 150 years this weekend. I remember how they taught me, especially with the flannel graph. Something that most of you probably, especially you young people, don't even know what that is.

My, how I thank God for those people, for my youth leaders, for pastors, for people that I knew over the years, people that pointed me to Christ. We want to remember and consider and imitate Andrew this morning as well as James. But I want you to also ask yourself: Is my life worthy of remembering? Worthy of other people considering, and imitating. What will those who know you best say about you when you die? Hopefully, we can say with the Apostle Paul in First Corinthians 11:1, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ."

Well, to be sure, the apostles, save Judas Iscariot, are all worth remembering and considering and imitating. And we begin this morning with Andrew. Now let me say from the outset, the New Testament doesn't tell us a lot about Andrew, but it does give us some idea. We know that Andrew was Peter's brother, and he was originally from the village of Bethsaida, which is on the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee, but we know that he moved with his brother to the larger city of Capernaum. He shared a house with Peter, his brother; and Peter and Andrew were fishing partners in a fishing enterprise, a fishing business. You might say they were entrepreneurs with James and John. We know little about Andrew other than, for the most part, we could say that the role that God gave him was certainly less public than Peter, James, and certainly John, but he was in that inner circle. But I also want to pause for a moment and just encourage each of you. Just because he was not as public, not as popular, shall we say, doesn't mean that he was less important, or he was less praiseworthy than the others. Beloved, even the most obscure servant of Christ, with the smallest platform, with the smallest acts of service, will be rewarded on the same scale of faithfulness and trustworthiness as the most prominent apostle, the most prominent pastor. As we look at Scripture, one's reward from God hinges on faithfulness and trustworthiness relative to the opportunities that God has placed in our life, in our service with respect to those opportunities, even if our service is in utter obscurity. God sees what is done in secret. We can see that, for example, in Matthew six; and our platform, our prominence, has absolutely no bearing on the magnitude of God's blessing and his reward in our life. God shows no favoritism. Each of us will be rewarded on the basis of what we have done with the opportunities that God has given us.

We see this principle, for example, Paul addresses primarily ministers. He says in First Corinthians four, beginning in verse one, "Let a man regard us in this manner as servants," literally slaves of Christ, "and stewards of the mysteries of God." In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy, not popular. Trustworthy - the term means "reliable" or "responsible," "dependable," "faithful." Therefore, he goes on to say, "Do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God." Let me say it real practically: a faithful, trustworthy missionary Sunday school teacher, nursery worker, whatever it is, who serves all of their life in utter obscurity will be evaluated and rewarded on the same basis as the Apostle Paul. Or the most prominent pastor, the godly mother or grandmother who faithfully loved her husband and raised her children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord and prayed for them in secret, though she had few, if any, resources and zero visibility, that dear lady will receive no less reward than the faithfulness of the Apostle Paul, of Charles Spurgeon, of John MacArthur. Ephesians six and verse eight it says,

"With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men,

"knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free."

Doesn't matter. In Romans chapter two, beginning in verse six, we read that God "will render to each person according to his deeds." The idea there is deeds relative to the opportunities that God has given them. In other words, where he has stationed you in your place of life. He goes on to say

"to those wholly perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life;

"but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath, and indignation."

Now, having said all of that, kind of by way of introduction, what we see with Andrew is that he was basically an apostle that served behind the scenes. We know little about him, but we do know that he was a devout Jew; that he worshiped the one true God. And like so many of that day, he was looking for the consolation of Israel, as we read about in Luke chapter two verse 25, which, by the way, was a reference to the long-awaited Messiah and the establishment of his earthly kingdom that's promised throughout the Old Testament. And we know that God chose Andrew to be one of his apostles, and he did so solely according to his uninfluenced will, not because he was such a great guy; and that was true with all of the others, remember what Jesus said in John 15 verse one. He said, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain."

Now, the first time we see Andrew, we see him meeting Jesus, basically in John one, beginning in verse 35. It says this, "Again the next day John," referring to John the Baptist, "was standing with two of his disciples,

"and he looked at Jesus as He walked and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God!'

"The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus."

Now we know that those two disciples were Andrew and John, the son of Zebedee. Andrew and John, we see that in verse 40, I believe it is of that text. And we know that John, in his gospel, never names himself, and so Andrew is with John, and it says, "And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, 'What do you seek?' And they said to Him, 'Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?'

"He said to them, 'Come, and you will see.' So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

"One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother."

Now obviously, Andrew's encounter with Jesus radically changed his life. By the way, can you imagine being able to spend time with Jesus? It's just staggering to me. And what happens when, even when "we who have never seen Him, we nevertheless love Him," as Peter said, what do we want to do when we're around Jesus? We want to introduce him to other people, and that's exactly what we see happen. In verse 41, it says Andrew "found first his own brother Simon and said to him, 'We have found the Messiah (which translated means Christ)." It says that he brought him to Jesus. "Jesus looked at him," referring to Peter, and says, 'You are Simon, the son of John; you shall be called Cephas' (which is translated Peter)." John 1:41 through 42 is where I was at there, and of course we studied that in great detail the last time we were together. But what we begin to see a little bit in Andrew's life is there's a pattern here where he brings people to Christ. He brings people to Christ because he's excited about who Jesus is.

My mind goes to a time when I was in Moody Bible Institute downtown Chicago, and my home was on the other side of the state - Mississippi River, the Quad Cities - and many times I would take the bus to go back home, and I remember one time going downtown Chicago, and the Greyhound bus station in Chicago is not exactly a safe place to go, but I remember helping a dear black man who was old and feeble, helping him. He kind of staggered, and I was helping him get on the bus, and there wasn't any place to sit but next to him, which was fine. And I sat down, and it was almost the first...I mean, he thanked me, but I remember the first thing that he said to me is, "Young man, do you know my Jesus?" He wanted to tell me about Jesus, and somehow, I guess he thought because of my kindness, maybe I knew Jesus. I'm not sure. We had a wonderful conversation, but that's what happens when people know Jesus, and that's what happened here with Andrew.

The gospel record then records how Andrew and Peter, they resume their fishing business in Capernaum, but Jesus then seeks them out, and we see that in Matthew four, beginning in verse 18, it says, "Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.

"And He said to them, 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.'

"And immediately they left their nets and followed Him."

By the way, as a footnote goes on in verse 21 and following, it says, "Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and He called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed Him." So Jesus seeks them out. He says, "Follow Me," and they then become, shall we say, part-time disciples while still being fishermen. And later on in Luke five, we see the final call of Jesus. Remember the story he tells them. You know they're not catching anything. So he says, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." And remember how Peter's pretty reluctant. It's like, you know, we've already fished this, but they do it. And in Luke five, beginning in verse seven, it says, "And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink." How much fish they caught!

"But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, 'Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!'

"For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish."

One of the companions would have been Andrew. The fish which they had taken, "and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not fear; from now on you will be catching men.' And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him."

Again, no doubt Andrew was among them. It's time to put up the fishing boats. They probably decided to let others use them; they would no longer need them. They had to sell and distribute all of the the fish that they caught; so, they left everything and followed him.

Now we learn a bit more about Andrew in John six. You will recall, in that context, there is a massive crowd following Jesus, and Jesus was healing the sick everywhere. And he goes up on the mountain, he sits down with his disciples, and the text tells us how he sees this tsunami of people coming towards them. The text says that it's because "the Passover feast was near," and you have all these pilgrims coming from everywhere, and they hear about Jesus. And in verse five of John six, it says, "Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip," and by the way, this is a test, okay, Philip, "'Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?' "This he was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do."

By the way, isn't it interesting how you see this all through Scripture - I've seen it in my life, you have in yours as well - the Lord loves to create utterly impossible situations to test our faith, to put his glory on display, and therefore to strengthen our faith. Perhaps you're in a situation like that right now.

Well, Philip answered him, "'Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.'" Then it says, "One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, 'There is a lad who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many?'" By the way, we know that according to Mark six verse 38, Jesus had commanded the disciples to determine how much food the crowd possessed, knowing the answer, knowing that they would come back and say, you know, all we got here is a lad with five barley loaves, two fish, and you know what are these? In other words, he wanted to make sure that they knew that there's no food out there. So what was about to happen here was going to be an absolute miracle. Andrew is seeing all of this now. Certainly, Andrew's faith is a bit weak too. Too bad he didn't say, "Lord, there's just, you know, this kid's got a little bit, but obviously that's not enough to feed anybody. We're absolutely helpless, but we know that you can do all things, and so we will trust you." Well, that didn't happen, but Jesus said,

"'Have the people sit down.'

"Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about 5000."

If you add the women and children, you probably got 20-25,000 people.

"Jesus then took the loaves and, having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise, also of the fish as much as they wanted.

"When they were filled, He said to His disciples, 'Gather up the leftover fragments, so that nothing will be lost.'

"So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.

"Therefore, when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, 'This is truly the Prophet who is come into the world.'"

Now, don't you know that Andrew, along with the others, was absolutely flabbergasted when he kept reaching into the basket, and it was never diminished.

Well, Andrew appears in another dramatic scene that's recorded in John 12. "There were some Greeks," the text says, "that were going up to Jerusalem to worship at the feast of the Passover," John 12 and verse 20, and they want to speak to Jesus. Now, these were probably Gentile proselytes to Judaism. I'll explain more about that in a second because that's important to bear in mind. In verse 21 of John 12, it says, "...these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee." Now, this is important. They're Greeks. They would have probably been from Decapolis, which is right next to Bethsaida, and Decapolis was made up primarily of Greek-speaking Gentiles, and Philip probably spoke Greek, and so they kind of know, well, there's one of the dudes that hangs around Jesus. Let's talk with him. I think he's from Bethsaida, so let's talk with him, and he'll understand this. So they began to ask him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Obviously, there's a conversation going on here, and so Philip's not sure what to do. So the text says, "Philip came and told Andrew." Why he told Andrew, it doesn't say. Maybe because Andrew is a bit more of an insider with Peter, James, and John, but then we read that "Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus." Kind of interesting when you think about it. You know, Jesus may have been in a part of the temple where the Gentiles were forbidden to go. We don't know for sure. Maybe that's why Philip was a bit reticent. Plus, he would have had to have interrupted Jesus. Got this massive crowd. Everybody's listening to every word he's speaking. You'd have to interrupt him and say, "Hey, there's some Greek dudes out here that want to talk to you." That would have been a bit awkward, but also this scenario - you must remember - in the context it occurred right on the heels of the Triumphal Entry, where there's been this massive crowd of people who were convinced that Jesus was the Messiah and he was about to conquer Rome and establish his earthly kingdom. Everybody's got tons of questions about all of this, and no doubt these Greeks wanted to interview Jesus on this very subject.

And by the way, Jesus went on to address that issue about the kingdom and so forth, verses 23 through 26, and it's fascinating that he began saying, "'The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified,'" And then he went on to speak about his death and his resurrection. That was the answer. Together, his death and resurrection, you see, would produce a rich harvest by offering salvation to all men, regarding of ethnicity. And by the way, there is no indication in the text that Jesus ever met with these men, but his discourse on his glorification through his death and his resurrection would have been the answer to their question, even though they would have all been baffled. Now Philip may have also been concerned because in Matthew 10 and verse five, Jesus had given a solemn warning to the 12. He said, "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles and do not enter any city of the Samaritans." Well, maybe that means we shouldn't interrupt him because we've got some Gentiles here. Moreover, Jesus also declared that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel in Matthew 15:24. So maybe we shouldn't interrupt him. Philip is thinking, and perhaps he feared the Jews' reaction if they witnessed Jesus interacting with the Gentiles, imagine all these Jews around Jesus, and all of a sudden, they bring in, you know, a couple of Greeks, and like, woo, you know, this is putting a pork chop at a bar mitzvah feast. You know, it's just not going to go over well. So Philip goes to Andrew, and he was certainly not ruled by fear or prejudice against the Gentiles, like most of the Jews. He immediately takes Philip and let's go see Jesus, as if to say, "Look, this is important. These men may be Gentiles; they may be Greeks. But they want they want to see Jesus. We're going to go talk to Jesus." And that's what happened. And this is all we know from Scripture concerning Andrew. Obviously, he loved the Lord, was committed to making sure others would know and love him too.

I was looking at some early Christian texts, particularly the Acts of Saint Andrew from around the second century, along with some other fourth-century accounts, and they report his death. Andrew's death was by crucifixion at Patros in Greece in the year 60 under the governor Agiates, and evidently according to the the stories, the governor's wife was converted to Christianity through the preaching of Andrew, and she really turned against him because of his wickedness and sent him into a blind rage. And so he had Andrew imprisoned and then later crucified on an X-shaped cross bound by cords rather than nails in order to prolong the agony. And it is said that Andrew continued to preach the gospel to those who passed by until he finally expired.

 By the way, this became known as Saint Andrew's cross. If you've been to Scotland, you've seen that cross, and it was reportedly discovered, and some of the relics of that cross, were reportedly discovered and cast down in opal during the reign of Justinian, with fragments of his cross now housed in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome; don't know if any of that's true and always take this stuff with a grain of salt. I mean, the Roman Catholics have sold more splinters of the cross that Jesus was sacrificed on than it would take to build another ark. You know, so you just don't know for sure. But Andrew does hold the distinction of being Scotland's patron saint, with tradition claiming that his arm was transported to Scotland by Saint Regulus, and today that cross appears as the official symbol of Scotland and is incorporated in their Union Jack. It's characteristically revealed as as white against a blue background. You see the white cross, and it serves as Scotland's national emblem. Well, enough on Andrew.

Let me just say that here's a guy that had no ministry empire, even though he was an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, no fame, no fortune, but by God's grace, he persevered faithfully to the very end in his witness for Christ. A loyal, trustworthy man who availed himself of all the opportunities that God gave him. A beautiful illustration, isn't it, of how the Lord can use quiet, faithful people that nobody knows behind the scenes to advance His kingdom - a man who was satisfied to serve in obscurity and who is now exalted in glory?

But what about James? Well, like Andrew, who was overshadowed by his brother Peter, James was overshadowed by his brother John. Both of them sons of Zebedee. James was the elder brother, and perhaps he thought that he should have had the place of prominence, but Scripture indicates that he was probably second in command to Peter. We assume that they were from a prominent family, James and John. Some evidence in early church records indicates that Zebedee may have been a Levite and closely related to the family of the high priest. They were probably affluent people because we read in Mark 1:20 that they had hired servants working for them. And although James is not pictured much in the New Testament record, except for two occasions, what's interesting, James is listed first when he and his brother John are mentioned together; and certainly, he occupied a privileged position in Jesus' inner circle along with Peter and John.

Now while James, like all of us, had many sinful issues to deal with, most of them really fell under two broad categories. As we look at what evidence there is in the New Testament, we can see that he needed to learn to rule his emotions rather than allow them to rule him. I've never had that problem, but I've heard of some people that do. And he had to replace his selfish ambition with humility. Again, I'm glad I've not had that problem, but those of you that do, that's a tough one. Well, what's fascinating is Jesus nicknamed James and John, " Boanerges", which is translated "Sons of Thunder," which tells you all you need to know about their personality. And perhaps he did this to gently, and perhaps humorously, admonish them to harness their passions and tone down their fiery rhetoric or whatever. And as we look at James and John, we can see, I mean, these guys were...they were bold, passionate, brash, zealous, fervent, hard charging, ambitious, maybe a bit of a hair trigger, daring, forceful personality. Forgive the horse analogy, but I remember some of my favorite horses were horses that I would say "had no quit in them." All right? That's the way James was, the kind of guy you would want on your side in a street fight.

By the way, I might add that, like all ancient fishermen, James had to have been a physical specimen, just like Peter. I remember in John 21 when Jesus caused his disciples to catch that enormous amount of fish in verses 10 and 11, Jesus said, "Bring some of the fish which you have now caught." And it says, "Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not torn." I did the math on this. This is probably the common fish of the Sea of Galilee that they caught, today it's called Saint Peter's fish, it's a tilapia. The average weight of a tilapia is 3.3 pounds, and they have this large comb on them. They could be up to eight inches long. 150 times 3.3 is 504.9 pounds. Imagine dragging that net up to the shore. Now, maybe the Spirit of God gave him a little Samson. We don't know, but the point is, the guy had to be stout, and if you knew what these men had to do in that fishing industry, these were tough guys. And I just want to say that my point here is that the apostles weren't a bunch of sissy boys running around trying to get in touch with their feminine side with pink headbands, all right? These were tough guys; these were forceful guys and specimens of the male gender. Nobody would look at any of these guys and say, "Is that a man or is that a woman? You didn't have to worry about that here.

Now, while some of the traits of James and John were trustworthy and praiseworthy, every virtue is a potential vice, right? We all know that. And you will remember, for example, how God refined them. I think of the story in Luke nine. The background is they're traveling with Jesus through Samaria, and that was a region of pagan idolatry. Jews had intermarried with the pagans years ago after the Assyrian captivity, and they embraced the ecumenical spirit, where they mixed Judaism with paganism, and they created this mongrel race and religion. And the Jews despised these people, called them unclean and every other imaginable name, and they would walk miles around Samaria if they needed to, rather than defile themselves. And so there existed a mutual disdain and hatred between the Jews and Samaritan. In fact, Scripture records many examples of the wickedness that originated in that region. Just give you a little historical background.

You will recall Ahab and Jezebel, and they had a wicked son, Ahaziah, and he tried to capture and kill his nemesis, the prophet Elijah. And remember how Elijah kept calling down fire two times, utterly consumed the captors and instantly incinerated them, reducing them to mere ashes. You read about that in Second Kings one. So anyway, this is the Samaritans. Now they're walking through the region. Obviously, Jesus loved these people, wanted them to know who he was, so he chose to pass through their region. So he's got this large entourage of people following him along with his disciples. They needed accommodations, and we read how the Samaritans weren't going to show them any hospitality. And so, if you pick it up in Luke nine, beginning at first verse 51. Here's what we read,

"When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem;

"and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him.

"But they did not receive Him because He was traveling toward Jerusalem.

"When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, 'Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?'"

They knew their history, right? And he says,

"But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, 'You do not know what kind of spirit you are of;

for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.’] And they went on to another village."

Now I confess, there have been times when I wished I could call down fire from heaven and consume certain people, but that's what they felt like doing, and it was probably shocking to them to see. My, this is how you deal with unfair treatment. You just move on to another village. You know, so often we learn through what is caught rather than taught, and this is what Jesus did in modeling that. And so, you know, it's easy for us all to let some kind, acrimonious remark, or unfair, hateful situation, you know, ignite our passion, and that becomes a beachhead for revenge and if we could, we'd call down fire from heaven. And sometimes we think, well, you know, it's just righteous indignation. Well, not when it's your pride that has been wounded, or your agenda has been derailed. And so, this wasn't a time for judgment. However, that time will come. In fact, we know that Jesus had come to seek and to save, and we read about this, for example, in John 12:46, this is what James had to learn, and John and all of the disciples, the apostle, it says there, "I have come as a light unto the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness, and if anyone hears My words and does not believe I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world." Now, obviously, judgment is coming eventually, but that wasn't the time.

As a footnote, several years later, according to Acts eight, we read how Philip, it says in verse five and following "...went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them." Now certainly many of these people would have been the ones that had rejected Jesus earlier. And it says, "the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did; for unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed, and there was great joy in that city."

So James and his brother both had to learn what we all must learn, and that is we cannot despise our mission field, as wicked as people may be, especially towards us. So he had to learn to rule his emotions and also replace his selfish ambition with humility. He had to learn what Jesus meant in Luke 18:14, "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." And of course in light of that, remember that story in Mark 10 and Matthew 20. Remember when James and John enlisted their mother to secretly ask Jesus if her sons could sit on his right and left sides when he ascended to his throne in the kingdom, and probably because of their affluence and they were able to follow Jesus around. They had money to do that. They could minister to him, and since James and John were in the inner circle, and since they witnessed the Lord peel back his flesh and allow the effulgence of his glory to blaze forth on the Mount of Transfiguration. You know, all of these things together would make them think, "You know, we're pretty special, so maybe we can ask this." And it's easy to assume that that would be appropriate given all those factors, but the problem was their motives were selfish, obviously, and they sought to exalt themselves. And Jesus saw right through that something we all must guard ourselves against. By the way, if if you're ever seeking prominence in any area of service for Christ, like if you're trying to be the star of the Sunday school class, or you're trying to exalt yourself somehow in Christian service, it will inevitably cause problems within the church, within wider religious circles, because whenever you position yourself to be seen or heard, even if it's on Facebook or whatever, you're going to offend people, and eventually your secret resentment will inevitably become public and break fellowship. That's why in Matthew 20 and verse 24 it says, "And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers." You know, when the other guys heard, "Oh, look, you know, Mama's trying to help them..." They became indignant. There's division. I have to laugh. No doubt they secretly desired the same thing, and so their displeasure was probably fueled by jealousy. Nevertheless, that's what happens. And in fact, the silly debate about who would be first in the kingdom continued to be a hot topic. Remember, all the way, you know, to the Lord's supper, the Lord washed their feet, and all that great story.

So James, along with the rest, needed to learn to jettison his selfish ambition and replace it with humility. Something that we all need to learn. And in Acts 12, we have a record of the final chapter in James's life. It says, "Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword." Which is a way of saying he was beheaded, "and because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also." So it's interesting. James was the first of the 12 to be killed for his faith. By the way, in that context, Peter escaped and he was killed by Herod Agrippa the first, who was the nephew, as you will recall, and the successor of Herod Antipas, who killed John the Baptist and put Jesus on trial. In Acts 12, then we read of what happened in the amphitheater later on in Caesarea. A number of us have been there, it's an amazing amphitheater. You can see exactly where this happened. It says, "the people kept shouting, 'The voice of God and not of man.'" They were praising Herod, and he was soaking it all in. Then it says, "Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died." Fascinating example of the radical change that took place in the Sons of Thunder.

We see Eusebius, who was an early church historian, give an account of James's execution that came actually from Clement of Alexandria, and here's what we read. Clement says that, "The one who led James to the judgment seat, when he saw him bearing his testimony to the faith, was moved by that fact, and confessed that he was himself also a Christian. They were both, therefore," he says, "led away together, and on the way, he begged James to forgive him, and James, after considering a little, said, 'Peace be with you,' and kissed him, and thus they were both beheaded at the same time." Oh, dear friends, the power and love of Christ that was manifested, and the zeal and the controlled humility that we see later on in these dear men. John MacArthur summarized his life so poignantly. He said, "James wanted a crown of glory. Jesus gave him a cup of suffering. He wanted power. Jesus gave him servanthood. He wanted a place of prominence. Jesus gave him a martyr's grave. He wanted to rule. Jesus gave him a sword, not to wield, but to be the instrument of his own execution."

Beloved, let's remember, and consider, and imitate these great men that God chose to lay the foundation of the church, the apostles, and to think that we continue to build upon that. Let's do that. Let's remember these people. Let's imitate these people, and let's also examine our lives to make sure that we are being faithful in whatever sphere of influence the Lord has placed us, so that we too can honor him in our lives and see others come to Christ, and that we might enjoy the fullness of everything that is ours in Christ Jesus. Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the great truths of your word. Thank you for what you did in these men, and thank you for what you continue to do in each of us. May we take what we have learned today and apply them to our lives in such a way as to bring honor to our name, come what may. I ask for the glory of Christ and in His name. Amen.