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"The greater danger for most of us
lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." (Michelangelo)
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 They are fishermen. Sons of another successful fisherman - Zebedee (Matthew 4:20-22). They are the third and fourth apostles called (recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke).
In Mark 3:17, Jesus gives them the nickname, Boanerges, or “Sons of Thunder”. That’s apparently a reference to their bold, aggressive personalities. What comes to mind when you hear “Sons of Thunder”? Perhaps the next superhero movie should be about them. Or maybe they are members of a down-and-dirty motorcycle gang. We think James and John might have been called “Sons of Thunder” because they asked Jesus to let them bring fire from heaven to destroy a Samaritan village that rejected them. Luke 9:51-55: “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. And 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?” But He turned and rebuked them.” You may also remember that their mother asks Jesus to give them special positions, sitting beside Him in His kingdom (Matthew 20:20–28; Mark 10:35-45). Yes, their mother asks for the favor, but Jesus then replies to James and John directly: He says, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They ignorantly tell Him, “We are able [to drink the cup you are about to drink], but to sit at My right and at My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.” What does it mean that they will drink the cup that Jesus is about to drink? It means that they will be persecuted because of their faith. James is the first of the apostle’s to die: The first verses of Acts 12 tell us, “Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church, to do them harm. And he had James the brother of John executed with a sword.” That’s a Roman style of execution, probably carried out in Jerusalem around AD44. As mentioned in a recent sermon, Clement of Alexandria is recorded as saying that the guard assigned to James was so moved when he saw James testify in court that he confessed that he was a Christian, too. He made a point to ask James to forgive him. James kissed him and told him, “I wish you peace,” after which both were beheaded at the same time. His brother John, however, lives into old age. John is exiled to the island of Patmos where he writes the book of Revelation. There are some who are under the belief that John never died, but that he ascended into Heaven like Elijah or Enoch. Others think he was killed by a group of Jewish men. Tertullian, a writer from the late second and early third centuries, reported that before the Romans banished him to Patmos, they displayed him in a coliseum and dunked him in a vat of boiling oil. Supposedly, when John emerged from the boiling oil without harm, the entire coliseum converted to Christianity. None of those ideas, of course, are something that we read in Scripture, but it does explain while a lot of illustrations of John show him in a vat of boiling oil. There is, of course, more information about John than there is for James. I love that he leaves his name out of the narrative, preferring to call himself the disciple whom Jesus loved (a direct contrast to being a “Son of Thunder”). In an emotional moment at the crucifixion, John is in a small group of people at the cross. Jesus gives John the added responsibility to take care of Mary, Jesus’ mother (John 19:26f). Historians believe Mary dies in Ephesus while still under the care of the apostle John. When John and Peter hear that Jesus has returned from the grave, they run to the tomb to see for themselves. John outruns Peter, but waits outside the tomb until Peter arrives and runs past him into the tomb. He makes the point of admitting in John 20:1-10 that the followers of Christ did not understand promise and prophecy that Jesus would rise from the dead. John writes five books in the New Testament: his version of the Gospel, as well as 1, 2, and 3 John, and Revelation. In writing, John teaches us about humility. We have that initial example that he doesn’t often write about himself directly, but we also see him writing about that ultimate example of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. Sometimes it feels like John preaches to himself as much as he writes to us. Look at some other things we learn from this apostle, focusing specifically in his first letter:: He tells us that we are walking either in the light or without the light. I John 1:6f says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” And just as we are in the light or not, we see also that we are of God or not (1 John 4:4f) “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world, therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.” Do we claim to be born in the God? Then we need to reread 1 John 3:9: “No one who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin continually, because he has been born of God.” We’ve noted that John sure writes a lot about love, doesn’t he? He uses the word some 80 times in his writing. In fact, he tells us in 1 John 4:7f, “Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” We are to be certain in our knowledge of salvation (1 John 5:13): he says, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” That means not only that we may accept that we are saved, but that we should move forward in our faith to the point of confidence. Now, if we’re not careful, that can also progress to the point that we become haughty about it, so we have to take care to remain humble and gracious (not self righteous) in the knowledge that Jesus has paid the price to save us. With all of that, the apostle still understands that believers slip, but he recognizes that sin is not the dominant part of an obedient believer’s daily life. Instead, it is faithfulness that our God rewards. “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10). In all the best novels, the main character undergoes change, and that’s no different for historical figures. The apostle John takes the route from being a “Son of Thunder'' to becoming a gentle man. In fact, we could say for both of these brothers, they learned to deal with their harsh ambitions and passions by instead looking toward the expectations of the One they followed. We should do the same, putting away our selfish motives and becoming a true servant like Christ.
Still, there are other things to see in the City, and we were happy to get in on the making of some pecan brittle in the candy shop. They made 95 percent of the candy in the store here (most of it downstairs in a non-public area), and we're always happy to take in craft demonstrations of all kinds whenever we spot them. In the past, we've enjoyed watching the blacksmith, the glass blowers, the knife maker, the lye soap maker, the log cabin builder, and more.
This year, we've also discovered that we could walk all the way around Lake Silver. On the back end of the small lake, we've spotted huge bullfrogs sitting in the water along the banks - something most people won't notice unless they are pointed out. I recently received some books to reinforce the national seminar that I am moderating and presenting for the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in early July. The seminar is titled American Environmental History. It is the first time this seminar has ever been offered. The first book I need to look at is Taming Manhattan: Environmental Battles in the Antebellum City, by Catherine McNeur, professor at Portland State University in Oregon. In fact, McNeur is the scholar I will be interviewing and working with for this project. Her book examines things like stray dogs and hogs roaming the streets of Manhattan, as well as levels of horse manure, animal carcasses, and refuse in the city during those years prior to the Civil War.     Other environmental tomes that I hold in my hand are as follows:
These are different from traditional books that describe the history of the United States and should be interesting reads.
 As I say, there are some unique opportunities at the Blue Zoo (and I assume they are all pretty similar), but I'm not sure it was worth the price of admission. Signs promise mermaid shows in the large aquarium that makes up one of the walls, but we were deprived of such. Another sign said something about pirates and buried treasure, but it must have been the pirates' day off. I guess they should have discounted our tickets a bit on this day.
My mom is almost 80 years old. She and I, along with my wife and two children, went to the Blue Zoo for a couple of hours of a getaway in early spring, and we enjoyed our day together.
The next two videos are from a song featured in the movie, Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou. Home Free's acapella version is a unique take on this style of song.
I was sorry not to have recorded samples from some of the other songs - especially Ring of Fire, originally a Johnny Cash release. For some, I went live on Facebook instead, but for most, I opted to just be in the moment at the live concert.
 They are raw, untrained, and fraught with emotion and preconceived notions about where their lives are going, how they are affected by the culture around them, and the ultimate goals of life. Jesus plucks these 12 men from their ordinary lives, and then must help them unlearn a few things. They must be molded into something greater than who they are when He finds them.
Last time, we considered the idea that these apostles have some work to do when they meet Jesus. We figured out that they lacked certain personal traits that, perhaps, we can relate to: they lacked spiritual understanding, humility, and commitment. But that’s not all. Tonight, we’ll see that they also lacked faith and power. How many times do we recall that Jesus said something like Oh ye of little FAITH to His closest followers? In Matthew 8:26, He says to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” In Matthew 17:20, He tells them “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” Similarly, in Luke 17:6, He tells them, “If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would obey you.” They are constantly amazed by His teachings and His miracles. Just when they think they've seen it all, Jesus does something else they couldn’t have imagined he could do. He heals a leper: they are amazed. He heals a paralytic: they are amazed. He calms the waves and the wind: they are amazed. He casts out demons: they are amazed. One might think that they could have at some point seen enough to start figuring things out. After all, the very purpose of miracles was to convince people of His authority - to prove that Jesus was the Son of God walking the earth and to increase faith because of that fact. John 20:30f confirms: “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” So why do they need so much convincing? Read in Hebrews 11, and I’ll restate the question. Verse 6 lets us know that, “[W]ithout faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” The question becomes, Why do I need so much convincing? They lacked spiritual understanding. They lacked humility. They lacked commitment and faith. Then, finally, we have to note that the apostles lacked POWER. They craved power, as we’ve noted before, and they would be less effective without power. Only when the time was right did Jesus gather them, in Matthew 10:1: “Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.” That power - that authority - comes upon them on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. They no longer argued about which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom. Now, the power of the Holy Spirit would work through them to accomplish God’s Plan for the new church. Why should Jesus bother with such a crowd? Our easy answer is because He loves us. He has always loved us since before the creation of our tangible world. Jesus claims, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16f). John reveals in 1 John 3:16, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” We see such a transition in the 12 men that Jesus chose for His apostles to build on the foundation of the church. They are ordinary men made extraordinary due to their direct proximity to the Savior of the world and due to the Spirit that compelled them forward. The question is asked: can the same be accomplished through us, today? We don’t have the power to heal the sick, cast out demons, calm the weather, or forgive sins, but can we finally realize that if we allow God to work through us, with the confidence that we have studied and understand His Plan, we can accomplish remarkable things for God. We, obedient, faithful servants, can do His will and bring glory to Him. We go from this place tonight with 2 Peter 3:17f in our hearts: “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.”  We understand that the apostles are ordinary men. They come with their own:
When they meet Jesus, they are raw and, to a certain extent, undisciplined. They were open to what Jesus offered, but they were not ready to be sent out. Just like us, they needed to learn. One problem they needed to conquer was their own lack of SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING. They only knew what they knew - what they had learned in their own upbringing. They are among the followers when Jesus delivers the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, and they hear repeatedly, “You have heard…but I say.” They still did not understand everything, even at the empty tomb, in John 20:9, where it says, “For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.” Jesus has to continue teaching them after the resurrection all the way until He ascends. I guarantee that, if someone who walks with Jesus for three years, listens to His sermons and parables - someone who has direct access to the Teacher and can ask questions and get answers any time - if that person does not understand the whole Plan and has to keep learning to the end of life, then none of us, over 2000 years later, is going to understand without continual study in the Book either. We can learn the Truth. We have the teachings of Jesus. We even have further inspired clarification through the teachings of these apostles. Just like the first-century Christians, in Acts 2, we should continually devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Another need that some (probably all) of the apostles needed was HUMILITY. Some wanted the power to strike down people at will. Some wanted a special place in Heaven - right next to Jesus - meaning the others would not be as important as they were. Among other times, Jesus talks about the humility of a woman who washes His feet with her tears and her hair. He even takes the time to teach them humility by washing their feet Himself. His own humility is directly taught in Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” And those are just two of the shortcomings of these 12 men. They have a lack of spiritual understanding. They have a lack of humility. Next week, we’ll talk about their lack of faith and their lack of power. For now, let’s just add one more item to the list - their lack of COMMITMENT. John 6:66 tells us that many of the disciples of Jesus “withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore”, to which Peter asks, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” and makes a strong statement, “You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” That’s all well and good, but these men, too, will leave Him for fear of their own lives. At Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, only Peter and John follow, but from a distance. Peter says he will personally follow Jesus even to death, but we know how that works out for him. Luke 22:54ff relates the account of Peter fulfilling Jesus’ foretelling that he would deny knowing Jesus three times before the morning is announced by a rooster. “Woman, I do not know Him,” Peter says. “Man, I am not [one of them]!” he says. And when accused a third time of being a close follower of Jesus, Peter finally and clearly proclaims, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” That’s when Jesus looks at him and he remembers…and he goes away and weeps “bitterly”. Jesus has to address all of these issues. He teaches them, He forgives them, and He prays for them. Read one of those prayers in John 17:6-19: Jesus says to the Father, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.” And He keeps praying: “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” How many times have we also felt our commitment fading or wavering? How many times have we doubted our own belief and commitment to Christ? In many ways we are like the apostles when our humility gets away from us or when we don’t seek answers to the things we don’t understand. That’s how a study of these 12 can be extremely relevant to us today, at this point in our lives when we might question the chaos in the world and wonder at the disorder of the systems we once thought were controlled. This study promises to show us all kinds of applications to our lives moving forward, and hopefully, we will be strengthened and encouraged through it. My wife and I had a special night out in central Oklahoma a few weeks ago when we went to see Home Free in concert. The five acapella-voice country group performed a few of their biggest successes for us (and a few thousand others). Live music, and live performance in general, is always different from watching a YouTube video or listening to a group on a streaming platform. These guys do an amazing job with their voices as their only instruments, although one also does the beatboxing and occasionally uses a looping device. If you haven't heard of Home Free, check out their videos on the YouTube.
I often encouraged my students to understand that we learn how to do the hard things in order to make our lives easier. If that is true, learning difficult material is ultimately as act of a desire to be lazy...or something like that. There may not be a universal truth to this graphic that recently came to me, but it has to be true for most people most of the time. It's a pretty decent attempt to illustrate that hard work earlier pays off in the end, and the failure to put in the effort will (probably) come back to bite you in the form of difficulties later. 
I was teaching fourth graders when a similar eclipse occurred in 2017. On both occasions, the mythology of solar eclipses came out pretty strong. I remember a few parents who would not allow their children to participate in our eclipse watch then, but to be clear, staring at the sun is always going to be harmful, even on a day when the moon is not interacting with it. The glasses make it possible with added UV protection. Does that even make sense to believe that the sun becomes brighter on a day when the moon comes between it and the earth?
This time, people liked sharing a social media post that claimed that pets needed to be shielded from the event. I don't know about you, but my dog doesn't make is a habit of staring at the sun, and I'm pretty certain that wild animals haven't ever been harmed in the process. The social media posts went on to say that some animals react to an eclipse in fear, much like they might with thunder and fireworks. I don't know about all animals, but I'm fairly certain, if they react at all, they will simply believe that its getting dark. Maybe they'll take an extra nap. One person on a major news agency even claimed that the solar eclipse - something that happens about every 18 months somewhere on the planet - is probably "another" sign of Climate Change. Are you kidding me? I can't provide any personal evidence (I haven't been to outer space to witness it myself.) that the solar eclipse proves or disproves that the earth is flat, but I'm also fairly sure that the science of the movement of heavenly bodies has something to say about that, as well. It's amazing to me what some people can come up with in the 21st Century. "The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short;
but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." (Michelangelo)  Tradition outside of the Biblical record tells us that Andrew continued to teach and preach as far as Russia, that he travels to Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, and Greece.
Some recorded that Andrew converted the wife of a Roman governor who had Andrew crucified because she would not recant her faith. Tradition says Andrew was crucified in Greece near Athens on an X-shaped cross. An X-shaped cross is known in some circles as St. Andrew’s Cross. This would have occurred in Patras, around AD60. There is even a book that claims that Andrew hung on his cross for three days preaching the entire time. We can’t say that any of this information is reliable, though, is questionable at best, having been written centuries after the fact. We would rather investigate what is recorded in inspired Scripture. The fact is, there is surprisingly little in Scripture about Andrew. Though we often hold up Peter, with all of his quirks and pretentious behaviors, as a person we can relate, perhaps there is more going on with Andrew than we have considered. Andrew is the apostle who
Jesus teaches his students to use the gifts God has provided them to glorify the Father. This is especially true in Matthew 25 when teaches about judgment. Starting in verse 14, He teaches the great parable of the Talents. He wants us to understand with clarity that He intends for us to use what God has provided for us for the glory of God. In the final judgment scene, pay close attention to His focus. It is on feeding the hungry, giving drink when people are thirsty, welcoming strangers, clothing the naked, and visiting people who can’t get out. He says when we do these things, we do them to Him, and when we do not do these things, we withhold them from Him. That’s consistent with the greatest commandment from Matthew 22:37-40: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.” Andrew and the others heard that, and Andrew especially put it into practice. He was among the first to become a student of Jesus. In John 1:35ff, the baptizer points to Jesus, and Andrew and John and says “Behold the Lamb of God!” The two leave John the baptizer and go with Jesus (John 1:35-42). We can only imagine the thrill of that afternoon. They are amazed at the discovery of the Christ as they listen to everything He has to say to them. It prompts Andrew to run to his brother Peter and proclaim to him, “We have found the Messiah!” Those two brothers, Peter and Andrew, then continue with their fishing duties until Jesus personally calls them to become fishers of men (recorded in Matthew 4). Moving ahead, we see Andrew partnered with Philip to bring others to Jesus. When Philip is concerned about how they could feed 5,000, Andrew notices a young boy with some barley loaves and some fish (John 6:8-11). Still later, Philip brings a couple of Greeks to Andrew, and it is Andrew who introduces them to Jesus (John 12:20-22). The last time we read about Andrew is at the ascension of Jesus in Acts 1:6-11. Andrew squints to get just one more glimpse of the Lord as He returns to Heaven. While some of us will use special glasses to watch the solar eclipse, those apostles would have wanted anything to shield their last view of Jesus from the perches on that mountain. Andrew has a unique personality. It’s not like those of Peter, James, and John. Instead, Andrew seems to quietly lead other individuals to meet the Lord. He is content with doing whatever he can, simply using the gifts he has. He then encourages others to do the same. Andrew is portrayed in Scripture as a thoughtful man. Peter jumps in with both feet, looking before he leaps. Jesus nicknames James and John as the Sons of Thunder because they have a tendency to be reckless. But Scripture never specifically singles out Andrew to receive any rebuke. He may be in a group that receives scolding, but nothing negative is ever attached to Andrew. Still, it is important to note that his Greek name, Andreas, means manly. Muscles, speed, and agility aren’t necessarily the standard for being manly. Andrew’s focus is bringing people to Jesus. There shouldn’t be any confusion with this: it should be our focus, as well. Andrew knows the value of personal contact. That’s the strongest form of evangelism. Rarely is someone converted to our Lord from just hearing a Gospel sermon (and that’s a shame, because there are some very important words shared in those sermons). Usually there is some sort of relationship between individuals before there is any invitation, study, or attendance. As we have discussed in other classes, it often begins with a smile or a kind act for somebody who has a need. God has given each one of us abilities that can be used to serve Him. Even if we underestimate our own abilities, we must never underestimate what God can do with what we have. I don’t find anything that pictures Andrew taking the lead on things. He doesn’t seem to be that extroverted, dynamic person that we often envy. And for that, we have to be thankful, because Andrew shows us that it’s possible for the rest of us to still have a positive effect on the church. We can all be an important cog in the machine that brings others to Jesus. Paul makes this point in 1 Corinthians 12 as he compares the church to a body that has many parts to perform many different roles.  My friend (former college roommate), Eddie Gweedle, made another appearance at Cecil Floyd Elementary. He was invited especially to appear at the assembly to pep students up for the upcoming standardized testing. In fact, he flew in from a meeting with Elon Musk in Hawaii just for the occasion. Secretly, they are attempting to merge a robot with the Tesla that was previously launched to land on Mars, in hopes that the robot may drive the car along the surface of the red planet (but don't tell anybody).
Mr. Gweedle is often pretty nervous about testing, and just the mention of the four-letter word (t-e-s-t) will set him into a fury of shakes and sweats. It was good for him to hear some relaxing tips from the principal, and by the end, he really believed that everyone can do better on any test if they calm themselves and enact some basic practices to help them do better. |
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