We come now to our exposition of the Word of God and we find ourselves in Mark's gospel. So will you take your Bibles and turn there? Today we are in Mark chapter three. In the section between verses 13 and 19, we're not going to be able to look at all of them, but we will look at some of them. So if you will turn to Mark three, we will look at that text in a few minutes. But before we learn more about the apostles, I know that from phone calls I've received, and emails of a lot of you, have your hair on fire, because of all that's happened in our country. Here this this last week, you're stunned by the weaponization of the FBI and the Department of Justice and targeting political opponents with the uni-party that's a part of Washington now and the Biden regime and all of these things. And I know it's difficult, I understand that. But, you know, it's just a reminder that we live in a fallen world. And folks, America, as many of us have known it, certainly those of us who have grown up in the 60s and the 70s, in particular, it's over, it will never be what it once was. Sin is metastasizing in ways that are exponential at this point. And Satan is the god of this world, and this country is under divine judgment, the wrath of divine abandonment continues to manifest itself in a country that literally mocks God at levels that are now incomprehensible. So we need to understand that and be excited about the fact that these are great days for the gospel. The darker the night, the more brilliant the light, right? And I want to remind you that God has ordained to allow evil to exist in his universe in order to display his glorious perfections and accomplish his purposes and, but even in his permissive providence, when he allows these things to happen, just rest assured that he retains his sovereign control over all things, and his inherent goodness, never forget that. According to Isaiah 46, and verse 10, he declares, "the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.' That includes all of the chaos and wickedness that we see right now in our country. Ephesians 1:11, "He works all things after the counsel of His will." And I also want to remind you of Psalm two, a few verses there beginning in verse one, "Why are the nations in an uproar and the people's devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, 'Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!' He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury saying, 'But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.' He goes on to say, "Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way for His wrath may soon be kindles. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him." Beloved, we are aliens in this world. We are citizens of another kingdom. And the Lord is going to come and he is going to judge the nations of the world, He will establish His kingdom. I believe it will be a millennial kingdom on earth, which will be the consummating bridge between human history and the eternal state and the eternal kingdom. And yes, we should be righteously indignant over all forms of wickedness that we see in the world and yes, we should expose evil. And yes, we need to vote. You know, all of those things are a part of what God would have us do as Christians. But we're also told to "be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." And here's what we should be thinking about. He says, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence in anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things." And I love this last statement, "and the God of peace will be with you."

Alright, with this in mind, let's focus our attention on the glorious truths of God's word on the person in the work of Christ, our Savior, our coming King. Let me read the text to you here in Mark Three, beginning in verse 13. Jesus, "went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted and they came to Him. And he appointed 12, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons. And He appointed the 12: Simon, (to whom he gave the name Peter) and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them, he gave the name Bonerges, which means 'Sons of Thunder'), and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him." Now, may I remind you that what we're seeing here in Mark's gospel is a transition from Jesus public ministry, to his more private ministry, a private ministry whereby he is going to pour himself into the 12 apostles, and primarily just three of them. There's a fascinating ministry principle that we could glean here, let me touch upon it for a moment. And that is concentration produces multiplication, concentration produces multiplication; go deep with a few not shallow with the many. If you want to do great things with for God, you go deep, you don't go wide and shallow. And you focus primarily on key people. Jesus poured his life into 12 Men, three of them, in particular, Peter, James, and John. And then later on also the Apostle Paul. In fact, in Galatians, 1:16, and following, we read how Paul, after his conversion, the text says, "did not immediately consult with flesh and blood." In other words, he was not taught by other apostles or the disciples who were in Damascus during that time, where the he encountered persecution. You read about that in Acts nine. But he says, "I went away to Arabia," which is interesting, that's the same region where Moses and Elijah had communion with God centuries earlier. And then in verse 18, he says, "then three years later, I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, the apostle Peter, and stayed with him for 15 days. So it would appear that Paul was alone with the Lord Jesus, he was learning, he was meditating. He was studying the Old Testament, and he was serving during that time as well. And he did this for three years before he went up to Jerusalem, which is interesting, because three years was the same amount of time that our Lord spent with his other apostles, and teaching them in the context of ministry and so forth. So it would appear that he was with the Lord Jesus during that time. So again, there's a great principle here, those who have had the greatest impact for the sake of the kingdom in the history of the world or those who went deep, not wide. And by the way, when I say deep, I'm not talking about depth in terms of theological acumen, necessarily, it's more depth in godliness. Men who committed to the pursuit of holiness, to enjoying God, levels of their being a life of worship and service and frankly, this must be the priority of every biblical, authentic Christian church. And I trust that as your priority. And as we examine these men that God ordained to serve as his apostles, we're gonna see many parallels in us, in terms of the bad things in particular, I mean, we're gonna see how that some of us shared their same temperaments, their character flaws, their habitual sins that become evident in their personalities, the way they react, and yet, we see also how God pruned the branches of their character, so that they would be able to bear more fruit as he continues to do in my life, and in yours by his loving grace.

So let's look at the text a little more closely, Mark three, verse 16. "And he appointed the 12." Now, bear in mind, now Jesus is always committed to doing the Father's will. And Jesus chose these 12 men only after a long season of prayer. Again, Luke 6:12 says, "And it was as at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God," verse 13, "He called His disciples to Him and chose 12 of them," that'd be 12 out of the many, "whom He also named apostles." I might remind you that the issue at stake was not so much who to choose, but he prayed for the men who were chosen. Very important distinction, and the Greek term, "dianuktereuo" in verse 12, which it says he spent the whole night, that term means to to endure a task throughout the night. And it's interesting, 12 men, 12 hours, I find that fascinating. He was praying for their mutual spiritual growth, their development, he was mediating on their behalf as their divine advocate. And here we see, frankly, a marvelous blending of Christ's humanity as well as his deity. So let's get to know these ordinary men, with an extraordinary calling. We're going to be able to look at two of them here this morning, not all of them.

So in verse 16, he says, "And he appointed the 12: Simon, (to whom he gave the name, Peter). Now, I want you to remember that Mark is just giving kind of a brief synopsis of Jesus's ministry here, and he tends to do this a lot, he's not going to go into great detail at this point. And so we're going to look at some of the snippets of information and use them as a launching pad, to look at some other passages of Scripture that help us understand more of who these men were and what was going on. So let's look first of all, at Peter in Matthew's gospel in chapter 10, verse two, we read, "Now the names of the 12 apostles are these: The first Simon, who is called Peter." Now, first of all, Simon Peter was a native of Bethsaida. He later moved to Capernaum, which is just kind of right down the road. He was a fisherman along with his father, John, who was also called Jonas and his brother Andrew. We know that he was married when Jesus called him. Paul comments in First Corinthians nine, five that indicated that Peter's wife traveled with him. And here in this text, and Matthew 10:2, it says, "The first," the "protos", the "protos" indicates foremost in rank. Now they were all equal in position, all except Judas Iscariot, they all have the same commission, they all have the same authority, they will all have power in the millennial kingdom. They will all judge the 12 tribes of Israel as we read in Matthew 19, and so on. But Peter was first or foremost in rank. In other words, Peter was the leader. No group can function without a leader. Whether it's a marriage, whether it's a company, a government, board of directors, even elders, in church, elders in the church, there needs to be a plurality of elders, but there will always be a leader, the pastor teacher will have the dominant voice. Sheep follow one shepherd. Primarily, they listen to one shepherd. They look to one shepherd, the dominant voice and frankly, anything in nature that has two heads is considered a freak. Churches with multiple pastors with ministry teams that lead the church, multiple men, constantly sharing the preaching and so forth. Those types of churches are inevitably weak, and sheep without a shepherd, and the sheep will tend to splinter off and follow different ones and it will cause factions and so forth. So, I mean, bottom line, if everybody's in charge, nobody's in charge. And so God put Peter as the leader.

Now, Peter's very name gives us a little bit of insight into his character, his common name given to him by his parents, was Simon bar Jonah, which means Simon, son of Jonah. But we know that in Matthew 16, verse 18, when Simon correctly answered Jesus question concerning his identification and said that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, at that point, Jesus changed his name to Peter, which by the way, is Cephas in Aramaic. Jesus said, "I also say to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock," that is the truth of your confession, not upon you as the person as the Roman Catholics falsely believed. But upon the truth of your confession, "I will build my church." And Peter means rock, or stone. So from the beginning, the Lord clearly made him the leader, the spokesman of the 12, even though, even though the Lord saw all of his flaws, especially his instability, his cowardice, and so forth. I always laugh when I think of this when the Lord saved me, he knew all of my flaws. He knew all the stupid and sinful things that I would do and yet he still saved me and continues to work in my life as he does you. Well, that's what was going on here with Peter. And perhaps this is why the Lord gave him such a name. To give him some some confidence to become something strong and, and unwavering. I mean, even as parents, I mean, we don't nickname our kids silly names. I remember this one kid, his mama called him sweet thing all the time. Sweet thing, I thought my poor guy, by the way, he kind of grew up to be a sweet thing. I mean, you know, there's, there's something about that name. And, you know, you don't call your kid bonehead or Buttercup or, I mean you want to give them a name that's good. And I think that's what was going on with, with what the Lord did. And it's amazing to read the various scenarios involving Peter found in the New Testament, you know, when you look at the scenarios, you would think this would be the last guy that Jesus would want to pick to be the leader of his apostles. I mean, he was overly confident, he was unloving, he was impetuous, proud, domineering, he was ignorant and in terms of just being dense, and cowardly, unstable. Think about it. He was the only apostle that Jesus rebuked by calling him Satan. It's pretty strong. He was a ready fire aim, kind of guy. His mind was always trying to catch up with his mouth. Someone said he had a foot shaped mouth, I can understand that. And the other disciples must have been dumbfounded when Jesus named him Peter, you know, rock, really? I mean, I can see maybe horseradish, you know? Because that's kind of how he would come across a lot of times like horseradish and hothead, loose cannon, but stone really? okay. And no other apostle was reproved as often as Peter, or as sternly as Peter. In fact, when the Lord would rebuke him, he would call him Simon, not Peter. In fact, in John's gospel, John calls him Simon Peter 17 times perhaps this was a way to reflect the old character and of his dear friend with the new. But over time, Peter's, exaggerated self confidence was turned into humble dependence. "I will never forsake you, Lord". Well, we know what happened and the Lord changed him through that. His vacillating cowardice would eventually be transformed into steadfast, bold love that would cause him to, to even go to a cross for the Savior. And his impetuosity was eventually transformed into Christ like restraint. I mean, for a guy to stand in front of 600 men and a Roman cohort and take a sword and cut off one of their ears. I mean, that's kind of stupid, right? Well, the Lord changed all of that, and gave him self control; that domineering hutzpah that he had, I mean, he would actually rebuke the Lord. Can you imagine that? Well, the Lord melted all of that into a man with a tender, humble submission to the master will washed his feet. And that loud kind of brash mouth of his was transformed into a fearless preacher of the gospel. And his ignorance about spiritual things was replaced by the marvelous revelations that came from the incarnate Christ himself. But I might also add that the Lord did not change, Peter, without Peter's own contribution to that change in the sense that he didn't just let go and let God as you hear people say at time, that's a very dangerous statement. We are told to walk by the Spirit, right? We're told to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, we're told to flee from sexual immorality. We're told that Paul told Timothy to pursue righteousness, and we are to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, Second Corinthians seven, one, and so forth. So we are to put to death, the deeds of the body were to mordify the flesh. And so by God's working in us, we also obey his commands. Romans 8:13, Paul said, "I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified." So the process of sanctification also requires our involvement to be obedient to the to the Word and the will of God to faithfully obey what he has commanded, and then he faithfully blesses us. Passive Christians never really produce the type of fruit in their life that they should, because they're just not engaged in the whole process of sanctification. Philippians two, verse 12, you're familiar with this, we are to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure." In other words, the work that we do is the effect of what God is doing in us. In fact, the term "work out" literally means to continually, the Greek grammar, means to continually work to bring something to fulfillment or something to completion. And so because God works, we work. It's an amazing mystery. And we do it in fear and trembling, in other words, with an attitude of legitimate fear of offending our holy God, combined with a sense of awe and respect for who he is, and all that he has done, is doing and will do.

Now, Peter's spiritual growth, as I thought about it, really revolved around three commitments. I want to share these with you, because I think they can be beneficial to all of us, as we grow in Christ, first of all, and this is so obvious that it's easy to overlook it. He was a follower of Christ. He was a follower of Christ, Matthew four 19. Remember Jesus, He comes, He sees Peter and Andrew, they're casting the net and into the Sea of Galilee. And he says, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." And we read that they "immediately left their nets and they followed him." Luke 5:11, "they forsook all and followed him." I mean, that's commitment. Today, many people will follow culture, they will follow tradition, but they're not really following Christ. They show up for church, but they're kind of fairweather Christians. It's kind of Sunday in the South. When the battle gets difficult, they're nowhere to be found. When their sin gets exposed, when they're confronted in some way, they find another church or they stop going all together and they follow their flesh. Now beloved, our number one priority, as believers to become a faithful follower of Christ, not a casual observer, not a spectator, but one who knows him intimately, and who obeys Him completely. So we need to position ourselves in the middle of kingdom activity. And watch what God will do. It's interesting Paul wanted to be near the master, or I should say Peter wanted to be near the master. He wanted to be on the front line of the battle. He wanted to be shall we say the tip of the spear This is what makes a good leader you can't lead troops from the rear. You can't lead troops into battle if your way back in the back. You must stand in front, remain in the fray. You must be the last one standing when the dust settles and the smoke clears and for Peter, everything else in life had to be submitted to this commitment. He gave up his career, his pleasures, his personal dreams and aspirations. And he understood the cost of discipleship that it might take him to a cross and eventually it did. So he was a follower of Christ. Are you?

Secondly, he was a searcher of truth. If you study his life, you'll see that he's always asking questions many times they were self centered questions. Many times they were immature questions. Seldom did he receive the answer that he wanted. But he was always asking questions always learning. I'm reminded of Proverbs one five "A wise man will hear and increase in learning and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel," verse 20 goes on to say, "Wisdom shouts in the street." Verse 22, she utters her saying, "How long O naive ones will you love being simple minded, and scoffers delight themselves and scoffing and fools hate knowledge." He goes on to say in verse 32, of Proverbs one, "For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them, but he who listens to me shall live securely, and will be at ease from the dread of evil." Beloved, you will never be useful for the sake of the kingdom unless you sit at the Master's feet, unless you immerse yourselves in the Word of God. And you'll certainly never be a leader. The spiritual self discipline of learning and applying the Word of God in your life has to be a priority. And that is the pathway that is the prerequisite to godliness, and especially all that want to be involved in, in some kind of activities. We all need to be involved in ministry, but especially if you're going to be involved in leadership, you need to apply yourself and discipline yourself to that end. That's why I tell every one of you you need to have a MacArthur Study Bible. I mean, if you don't have that, that's like a real priority, because that will give you the great doctrinal explanations of those passages, along with other things that you can use. I have a well equipped gym at my place that our family and friends will use, my grandson's in particular, and I have told them on a number of occasions, guys, make sure you're spending as much time working on your mind and your heart as you are your body, which is going to get old and deteriorate and pass away. All right? You need to grow mentally, spiritually and physically, don't get out of balance. And how sad to see great athletes who have spent their life training their body but they neglect their mind and their heart and the great doctrines of godliness and blessing. First Timothy four remember what Paul told Timothy in beginning in verse six, "Be a good servant of Christ, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine, which you have been following." I mean, there's your priority, "but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women," which by the way, was an epithet denoting the aberrant beliefs. Today, it would be you know, the silly things like urban legends and blogs and websites and conspiracy theories and enneagrams, you know, those types of goofy things that people get caught up in, going out into the woods with a pen and paper and waiting to have some word come to you and writing it down as if that's somehow God speaking to you, man, talk about neglecting the authority and the sufficiency of Scripture, or being involved in silly things like, you know, the channeling of what's her name, Sarah Young and Jesus calling and all of those ridiculous things that people get caught up in. So he says, "Have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women." But then he says, "On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline," could be translated exercise, "is only a little profit." By the way, I want to add it's of some profit All right. So you know you do you need to have some physical exercise. But it's a little profit, "but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise to the present life and also for the life to come." Well, Peter learned to do this over the course of his life. You know, growing and the grace and the knowledge of Christ your friends has to be just the number one priority of your life and you have to do everything you can to do that. Remember what Jesus told Martha in Luke 10:41, "Martha, Martha you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only a few things are necessary, really only one." Then he says, "For Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." And the good part was listening to the words of Jesus with an open heart and mind. Peter we know, longed for divine revelation. He fed upon it, he never assumed he knew at all. That's why he said in First Peter two two that we are, "to be like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow in respect to salvation." And certainly, an infant's milk from Mama's breast as a matter of life and breath are life and death. And the child needs it just like we need the word of God. In fact, Peter's last words in his second epistle, second, Peter 3"18. He says, "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forevermore. Amen." And I think of the apostle Paul, he's about to be executed. He is in a Roman prison and what did he ask for? In Second Timothy 4:13. He said, "Bring me my cloak," because he was cold, "and the books especially the parchments." In other words, bring me my Bible. The books is reference to the Old Testament papyrus the scrolls and the parchments were the the vellum sheets, made of treated animal hides, probably copies of letters that he had written, maybe even blank sheets for writing other letters, that was his priority, all the way to the end. So Peter was a follower of Christ. He was a searcher for truth.

And he was also a joyful sufferer number three, John 21. If we go there, we would read how Jesus promised him that someday he would die on a cross. And yet for 40 years he faithfully ministered knowing that that would be how he would finish his life. And in light of that, he said in First Peter, four beginning of verse 13, "To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also with the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you." He goes on to say in verse 16, "If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name, let him glorify God....Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls, to a faithful Creator and doing what is right." I love to think about this. I mean, despite his failures, despite the Lord's loving rebukes, despite the relentless criticism and personal attacks, when he preached, he never gave up. And he never complained, he continued to follow Christ. And he did so with joy because he never lost his fellowship with Christ. The early church father Eusebius, in his what's called the Ecclesiastical History, describes Peters crucifixion. There we read that he was forced to watch his wife being crucified, and he was at the foot of her cross, constantly repeating, "Remember the Lord, Remember the Lord, Remember the Lord," until she died. And it is said that Peter felt unworthy to be crucified as the Lord. So he asked to be crucified, upside down. Now only the Spirit of God can do that kind of a work in a human being. So he was a joyful sufferer. And what a marvelous testimony of God's transforming power. And this should be a great comfort to all of us Simon's in the world, right? To see what God can do. In the guy like Peter, I can't wait to talk with him someday. I can't wait. I mean, God can and will use anyone who submits to him completely.

Next, Mark three verse 16. Again, and we read, "He appointed the 12: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter) and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means "Sons of Thunder"). Now again, Peter, James and John, were the three most intimate companions of the Lord during His earthly ministry, they were in his inner circle. And they were the ones in whom the Lord invested most of his time shaping them into his glorious image. Examples to all of us. So as we think of James and John, we think of, I don't know the dynamic duo here. I mean, they were the sons of thunder. They came from the sons of Zebedee, they are a prominent family. Some evidence in early church records indicates that Zebedee may have been a Levite and closely related to the family of the high priest. James was the elder brother. Perhaps he thought he should have been the leader of the group. But Scripture would indicate that he was second in command to Peter. And while James, like all of us had many sinful issues to deal with, we see that God just continued to work in his life. And most of his issues fell under a couple of broad categories in his life that the Lord had to change. First of all, he had to learn to rule his emotions rather than them ruling him. I can't identify with that at all. Maybe you can. But this was certainly an issue for him. If you look at lots of passages in Scripture, you see that James and his brother John, were both hard charging, in your face kind of guys. They were passionate. They were zealous, they were fiery, fervent. They were hot blooded guys. That's why Jesus nicknamed them Sons of Thunder. They were the go ahead and make my day kind of guys. All right, that's kind of who they were. Remember, Jesus gave Simon the name Peter, referring to "rock" to shape his personality, and keep it from vacillating towards cowardice and to be steadfast in the faith. Well, perhaps he did the same thing here with with James and John calling them Sons of Thunder. Maybe he did this humorously to gently and perhaps get them to harness their passions, tone down their rhetoric a little bit. We can't say for sure. But we know as we study the life of James that he was very outspoken, He was impatient. He was very similar to Peter. He was a ready fire than aim kind of guy. He would shoot first and ask questions later, as we're going to see, this is a very dangerous and sinful aspect of, of his character that God had to change. We go to Luke nine for example, we read how the Jesus and the guys were traveling through Samaria region, a pagan idolatry, just so that you remember the Jews intermarried with the pagans after the Assyrian captivity, and they embraced that ecumenical spirit that mixed Judaism with mysticism and paganism, and kind of created a mongrel race and religion that the Jews despise. They call us, we'll call them unclean, they would walk many miles around Samaria to get to where they were going. And so there was this mutual disdain and hatred that the Samaritans had for the Jews and vice versa. And scripture records many examples of, of the wickedness that existed in this region. Remember, Ahab and Jezebel had a wicked son, Hosea. And he tried on a couple of occasions to kill his nemesis, Elijah, who would call down fire and killed Elijah did that two times remember? Well, James and John, they remembered this, okay. He wanted to well, Elijah wanted to consume his captors, and, and instantly incinerating them and, you know, reducing them to ashes. You read about this in Second Kings one. But Jesus loved these people. He wanted them to come to faith in Christ. And so he's going through the region, the Samaritans offered him no hospitality. And so, James and John remembering the Old Testament, and the precedent of Elijah thought that they had a remedy for that blasphemy. So we read in Luke 9:54, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did?" In other words, Lord, can we nuke them? You know, that's what he wanted to do. But Jesus "turned and rebuked him 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 it says, "and they went on to another village." Now James and John must have been shocked with this whole deal. I mean, is this how you handle unfair treatment, you just kind of move on and wait for something else to happen? There was such profound wisdom in Jesus words and how easy it is, by the way, for us to let some unkind, acrimonious remark from someone, or some unfair, hurtful situation, turn us into just an angry revengeful type of a person and look for a beachhead for revenge and then call it righteous indignation. When in fact, it's just wounded pride, our agenda has been derailed. And that was the case with them. So we all have to examine our motives. And as I say, don't throw your dog in every fight saving for the big ones, right? But that's not how they were, I've had to learn this the hard way. You know, I seldom get really angry. But when I must, I want to make sure that it's for the Lord's sake and not for mine. So even when defending the honor of Christ we have to be careful to measure our emotions.

Well, the point is, the Sons of Thunder needed to learn the priority of love and patience, especially when presenting the gospel. They needed to learn how to rule their passions, their emotions, rather than letting them rule them. They needed to learn how to bridle their emotions and harness their zeal and their wisdom. And that was not a time for judgment, however, the time would come. But now Jesus had come to seek and to save sinners. In John 12:46, we read "I have come as a Light into 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, as a footnote, several years later, we know according to Acts eight five that Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. Certainly many of those who had rejected Jesus earlier would have heard his preaching would have been in his audience. And then we read this, "The multitudes with one accord, he did the thing 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." James and John had to learn a lesson the hard way, didn't they? We cannot despise our mission field. God's timing is always perfect. So Jesus helped James to rule his emotions, to temper, his zeal and passion give him tenderness. He had to learn the meaning of Exodus 34, six, "God is merciful and gracious, long suffering and abounding and goodness and truth." And Ezekiel 33:11, we read that he has, "no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather the wicked turn away from his way and live." And as we see, James, and the Sons of Thunder, began to learn this, as the master gently shaped their self centered religious zeal and help them control their passions. So not only did he have to deal with his emotions, but secondly, you had to replace selfish ambition with humility. He had to learn what is meant in Luke 18:14 "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Now, here, I would take you back in the New Testament, remember the story, in Matthew 20. And we're going to come to it eventually in Mark 10. And there James and John enlist their mother to secretly ask Jesus, if her sons could sit on his right and left sides when He ascended the throne in the kingdom. All right, a little politicking going on in the background. And because of their affluence, they were able to follow after Jesus, they were able to minister to him and so because of that, they were in the inner circle. They I mean, after all, they witnessed the transfiguration. They're on the mound with Jesus. And mom was a faithful follower, faithful servant, come from this prominent family, the Zebedees, so it would be easy to assume that this would be an appropriate request. The problem was their motives were selfish. And so they sought to exalt themselves and Jesus of course saw right through it. So we read Matthew 20, beginning of verse 20. "Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with their sons bowing down and making a request of Him. And He said to her, 'What do you wish?' She said to Him, 'Command that in Your kingdom, these two sons of mine might sit, one on your right and one on your left.' But Jesus answered, 'You do not know what you are asking, are you able to drink the cup that I'm about to drink?' They said to Him, 'We are able.' He said to them, 'My cup you shall drink, but to sit at My right and on My left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My father.' And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers." So the other guys heard about this. And, you know, they were upset. And I would imagine they were upset because they were thinking the same things about themselves right, as that's probably what was going on, so their displeasure was probably fueled by jealousy. I mean wherever you see strife, you can back up and you can see jealousy and pride. In fact, often in Scripture, we see jealousy and strife mentioned together. In fact, this was the same silly debate that they were having at the Last Supper, remember the same type of thing. Verse 25, of Matthew 20, goes on to say, "But Jesus called them to Himself and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you. But whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come, to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.'" Beloved, we must all guard ourselves against selfish ambition, against jealousy, trying to seek a place of prominence, whether it's in the church or trying to be the star of the Sunday school class, or whatever it is, you have to guard against that, you know, guard against positioning yourself to be seen or to be heard. I mean, all this Facebook, I mean, that's what Facebook does, primarily, it preys upon people who are desperate for affirmation and so forth. And eventually, if you feel like you're underappreciated, eventually your secret resentment will become public. And it will cause divisions within a fellowship, as was the case with James and John again, Matthew 20:24. "And hearing this the 10 became indignant with the two brothers." If we look at First Peter five, in verse five, Peter warned the persecuted saints of this very thing and he focuses on the younger men. Because we tend to be this way, I should say, you I'm not in the younger man anymore, but I am in the man category. "You younger man, likewise be subject to your elders. And all of you clothe yourselves with humility", in the original language, it carries the idea of tying on something with a knot as a slave would his apron, in other words, put on humble service, "clothe yourselves with humility toward one another for God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him because He cares for you." So by the Lord's gentle hand of discipline, he continued to work in his life. And James was gradually conformed more into the image of his master. He learned to control his emotions, he learned to replace selfish ambition with humble service, in fact, in Acts 12, in the final chapter of James's life, we read this beginning in verse one. "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." In other words, he was beheaded. "Because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to sieze Peter also." And of course, we know that angel came and delivered Peter and that didn't happen. But James was the first of the 12 to be killed for his faith.

Herod Agrippa, the first the nephew and successor of Herod Antipas, who killed John the Baptist, put Jesus on a trial. I mean, that's kind of the whole group there that we're talking about. And you will recall how the Lord took out his vengeance later on. In fact, those of you who go with me to Israel, we're going to be in this very amphitheater there in Caesarea. But you will recall how Herod arrayed himself, the text says, and royal apparel and he sat on his throne and he gave an oration to all of them while he was in the amphitheater, in Acts 12:22, "The people kept shouting 'The voice of a god and not of a man! And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died." Folks never take the sword of God's vengeance out of his hand. Vengeance is Mine, saith the LORD. And God is far more creative in the way that he brings about vengeance than you could ever imagine. And certainly, this is what happened. It's fascinating, as we think of the radical change that took place in James and his brother as well. Eusebius, who's one of the early church historians gives us an account of James's execution that came from Clement of Alexandria. Let me read this to you as we draw this to a close this morning. Quote, "Clement says that one who led James to the judgment seat, when he saw him bearing his testimony was moved, and confessed that he was himself also a Christian. They were both therefore," he says, "lead 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."

Well, dear friends, it's amazing to see the power of God work in the redeemed, regardless of how dysfunctional, sinful, whatever we might be, God can take us and he can mold us into men and women that can be used mightily for the sake of the kingdom. John MacArthur summarize James's 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 the be the instrument of his own execution." So my friends, we can rejoice that God is working in all of us in ways that we can't even imagine as he continues to conform us into the image of Christ, we must all be deeply moved by this. And we must do all that we can to submit ourselves to the Spirit's work in our heart, that we might become more conformed into the likeness of Christ. And to be able to enjoy all that is ours in him to the praise of his glory, amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for these reminders of your work and in these men that you chose to be the foundations of the church. I pray that we will learn much as we look at their lives and rejoice in the ways that you worked in them knowing that you are at work in us in the same way. To this end, we rejoice we give you thanks. In Jesus name. Amen.