The Apostle Andrew

A couple of weeks ago, we began a series of messages on our Sunday night studies on the 12 apostles. And tonight, I want us to look at the apostle Andrew. In fact, I'm just going to take them in alphabetical order. That's one of my obsessive, compulsive traits. And I reserve the right to do that. And so we're just going to know system about this except we're just going to take them in alphabetical order. Although, we will leave Judas Iscariot till last because he's in a category all his own. But I want to talk about Andrew tonight. As we look at these apostles, we're going to pull together the references of the New Testament that speak of them and see what lessons we can learn, principles, and characteristics from their lives that we can learn from, we can glean truth from. There are not a lot of references about Andrew. He's more in the background, not near as prominent as his brother Peter. And yet, what we do see of him is extremely impressive. In fact, in the few references where he is found in the New Testament, there are three characteristics that stand out about Andrew that should be true of any follower of Jesus Christ. Those three characteristics I want us to look at tonight. The first of those being Andrew was an earnest, sincere disciple. There was nothing half-hearted about him. There was nothing half-way. When he did something, he did it all the way. He was wholehearted. He was earnest about what he did. He was sincere about what he did. And you can see that in at least three ways with Andrew. First of all, in his seeking of Christ, he was an earnest, sincere disciple. Look with me first, please, at John chapter 1. John chapter 1 where we find Andrew seeking Christ. Verse 35 says, the next day, John was there again with two of his disciples. Now, skip down to verse 40. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. Now, let's get the context here in the setting. John the Baptist is the forerunner of Jesus Christ. He is preaching the good news of the kingdom that is to come. Kingdom is at hand, the king is coming, he is preparing the hearts of the nation through calling them to repentance. That Jesus is coming, the king is coming. And there are many who are gathering themselves to Andrew to hear this message. One of those who have gathered to Andrew to John the Baptist to follow him and to hear his preaching is Andrew. Now, if you go back to verse 28, you would find that John is in the vicinity of Bethany on the other side of the Jordan. That's where John was baptizing, where he was preaching, that was kind of his center for his ministry. Now this is not the Bethany that you hear of several times in the New Testament that was right outside Jerusalem where Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived for instance. It's not that same town. This is a different Bethany. The king James refers to it as Bethabra. It's a different locality, somewhere on the east side of the Jordan River, but it is at least 60 miles away from Andrew's home. Andrew is from Galilee. And he is following John the Baptist, 60 miles away from home, which says something about how eager and earnest and sincere he was in seeking Christ. Andrew, one of those Jews who no doubt was familiar with Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. He was looking for the Messiah. He was eagerly awaiting the Messiah to come. And when he heard about John, he was drawn to his ministry and to his preaching. And who wouldn't be? John's ministry was electrifying in Israel in that day. Most Jews were used to hearing the dull teaching of the rabbis, teaching that quoted one another, that tried to get down to deep interpretations of obsolete Old Testament passages or give some idea of how the law should be applied to daily living with putting on the people more burdens than they could possibly bear. That's what the people were used to with the teaching of the rabbis. And along came John, John the Baptist, a preacher in the wilderness, no ceremony or ritual about him. He is a preacher who preached to the heart and cut to the heart, preached against sin, called people to repent, called people to show themselves publicly that they were repenting of their sin with the symbol of baptism. And there was something in that earnest and eager heart of Andrews that responded to that kind of ministry. Preaching the necessity of repentance Andrew himself had recognized the need to repent and had become a follower of John the Baptist, this fearless preacher in the wilderness. So Andrew followed him. He was not content with the deadness of the scribes teaching. He heard something that was life giving, that was from the Word of God that thrilled his soul. That's where he went. You know, it's never, it never ceases to amaze me how people who know Christ as savior can stay in dead churches that don't preach the Bible. I remember in the first pastor I had in North Carolina, we had a church, the nomination doesn't matter, but it was a liberal church in our area. And we had several families in our church who had family members in that church and they would consistently seek to get them to come out of that church, leave that church which no longer preached the Bible, no longer believed the Bible, dead as four o'clock in the morning. And those people would not leave because they had entanglements there. They had other family members there. And what I watched as many of their children went through the classes of that church, not ever hearing the gospel. And today, many of those people would be people if they have stuck with that church who have not grown up hearing the gospel because their parents would not get somewhere where the Bible was preached. Now I would like to think that all of you sitting here tonight are in a place where the Bible is preached. So I know I'm preaching to the choir a little bit. But occasionally, one of these tapes of these services sneaks out to somebody else. And so I'm talking to you now, if you're listening to this in another format, if you're in a church that is dead that does not preach the Bible, get somewhere where you can hear the Word of God, where the preaching will be that which explains the Scriptures and applies it to life. That's what Andrew found in John. And that's why he was an earnest seeker of Christ. He didn't know everything about Christ yet. He was still putting the pieces of the puzzle together from the Old Testament, but he was earnest in seeking Christ because he wanted to be where the Word of God was, where it was taught. So it was an earnest, sincere disciple in seeking Christ. Secondly, he was an earnest, sincere disciple in following Christ. John chapter 1 again, look back at verse 35. The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, look, the Lamb of God. When the two disciples heard him say this, and we know from verse 41 of his Andrew, when the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus, turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, what do you want? Now that is an interesting question, isn't it? This is early in the ministry of Christ right at the very beginning of his ministry. Really hasn't started his official ministry yet. But Jesus knows that throughout his ministry there will be many people following him for a variety of reasons. There will be some people who follow him just because there's a great crowd there. And they'd like to be a part of something exciting. This is a happen in place. Look at all these people out here. This preacher, let's go hear him. And so some people will follow him simply because of the crowd. Some people will follow him because they hear about the miracles. And they want to get a miracle maybe for them or they want to see one happen. It's almost like a circus. They'd like to see something spectacular. Some people will follow Jesus because they might get a meal out of it. Jesus is known to feed multitudes. So some people will follow Jesus for reasons that are very self-centered. These first people who start following Jesus, Jesus, penetrates their hearts with this searching question that says, what do you want? What are you looking for? Why are you following me anyway? I want you to see their answer. In the Bible of verse 38, they said rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? Now as interesting as the question is, the answer is even more interesting. Where are you staying? It's not, well you know, we were kind of hoping to see something spectacular, maybe a miracle, maybe we thought we might get some bread or something to eat. We want something. No, that was not the answer. We want to know where he is staying. Why? Because wherever he is, they want to be. They are ready to leave and be with him. Follow him. Stay with him wherever he is. And so Andrew, one of these two in answering Jesus, says, I am ready to go wherever you go, wherever you stay is where I want to be. There's a sincere earnest desire to have fellowship with Christ. And as they follow him, they want to know where he is staying. I believe that is true of every genuine disciple, every earnest, sincere disciple that we will follow Christ, no matter where he goes. You know the Bible teaches that it is natural for us, once we come to know Christ, it is natural for us to follow him. But unnatural, it is natural because we have become new creatures. We have a new nature. We are now sheep who follow the shepherd, who know, hear and understand the voice of the shepherd. Jesus said this in John chapter 10 and verse 27, my sheep, listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. You cannot consider yourself a sheep unless you follow Jesus. Now all of us follow him haltingly, all of us follow him hesitantly sometimes, all of us follow him in an incomplete and imperfect fashion sometimes, surely. But if you are a sheep, if you are one of Christ's, to some degree you follow him. There is evidence in your life that you are genuinely his, you belong to him, that you're saved. There will be some evidence in your life that you know Jesus Christ. Abraham was a man of faith, the Bible calls him a man of faith. He had some pretty serious lapses of faith. He wasn't perfect in his faith, sometimes his faith halted and hesitated. But overall when you look at his life, he was a man of faith. And true sheep, those who know Jesus Christ, although sometimes we may stumble, sometimes we may wander away a little bit. The general tenor and direction of our life is that we follow Christ. We follow him. Jesus says that in that passage, 1 John 3 John, one of Jesus disciples says it this way, no one who is born of God will continue to sin because God seed remains in him. He cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother. Obviously the thought here is the general direction of life, the pattern of life. It's not saying that if anyone ever sins, he's automatically lost his salvation. John's not saying that. He's describing the general direction of your life. When you go on following Christ, you show that you're one of his sheep, one of the believers. If you continue on sinning like nothing's ever changed in your life, just go on living the same old life you've always lived, no remorse, no guilt, no shame, no conviction, no concern about sin in your life. If that's the case, then I would say you're not a sheep, you're not a Christ follower, you're not a disciple of the Lord. One who follows Christ demonstrates that he or she is an earnest, sincere disciple, follower of Jesus. Andrew was that way. Andrew was an eager, earnest, sincere disciple in seeking Christ and in following Christ, but also thirdly, in learning truth. He shows his earnestness, his sincerity in learning truth. Would you look with me please at Mark chapter 13? Mark chapter 13. We jump all the way to the end of Christ's ministry, actually, to the last week of his life as he's entered Jerusalem with his disciples and each day he's going into the city, he's teaching in the temple. One day as they walk out of the temple, I believe if I remember correctly, this would have been on Tuesday of that final week of our Lord's life, as they walk out of the city of Jerusalem back to where they were staying in the Garden of Gethsemane each evening. Notice what happens in verse 1. As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, look, teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings. Do you see all these great buildings replied Jesus? Not one stone here will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown down. As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, tell us, when will these things happen and what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled? The disciples were puzzled about what Jesus said or meant when he said, you look at all these stones in this beautiful ornate temple, not one of them will be left on another. This temple will be destroyed, kind of left it at that. Later as they're on the Mount of Olives, the other side of the Kidren Valley or the Garden of Gethsemane is, the disciples were puzzled. So they come and ask, what did you mean by that? When you said that about the temple, what was that about? Would you explain that a little bit to us? Now the intriguing thing to me about this is that usually when you see three people who are closest to Jesus in his ministry, who are kind of the inner circle among the disciples, its Peter, James and John. Did you notice, however, there's a fourth inquisitor with them here. There's someone else who is so intrigued by this that he will not be left out of that inner circle. That's Andrew. There are a couple of other instances where in the listing of the names of the apostles, Andrew is listed right after Peter, James and John. So you kind of wonder if maybe he was right on the edge of the inner circle. But I think at least in this case, it indicates that he was so eager to learn, he was so sincere about knowing the answer to this question that he was right there with the circle, the inner circle of the three, to find out the answer to that question. And Christ would go on to explain some wonderful truths about his second coming to those four disciples. Now I would suggest from that that if you are earnest to learn truth, if you are sincere about learning truth, you need to be in the place where you're going to learn truth. You see, there's no magic wand that just kind of drifts over your head and drops pixie dusk of Bible information into your brain. It doesn't happen that way. I roamed with a guy in college who would have his devotions every morning before he got out of bed. He would lie there on his back in bed, be reading his Bible within five minutes. His Bible would be flat on his chest. Something interesting I would notice about him. His eyes would be closed. I'm sure he was meditating and praying. But I was always amused to think that I wonder if my friend felt like the Bible would somehow get into his heart through his chest, you know, laying there on his chest. I'm not sure if he believed in Bible osmosis or not. But it doesn't work that way. There is no magical formula for getting the Word of God into your heart and mind and transforming your heart and mind. If you want to learn truth, you've got to be in the place at Jesus' feet, if you will, got to be in the place where you can learn truth. That means we must be faithful in church. We must be studying our Bible, reading our Bible consistently. This is the place for divine truth to make its way into our hearts. When Andrew wanted to know the answer to his questions, he knew where to go. It was at the feet of Jesus. And when we want to learn truth, we know where to go. He was an earnest, sincere disciple in seeking Christ and following Christ in learning truth. If there's something else we can learn about this disciple that I think is instructive to us, Andrew is known not only for being an eager, earnest, sincere disciple, he's also known for being a faithful witness. Couple of times we find him witnessing to people, bringing people to Jesus. The first is probably the most well-known back in John 1 when he is a faithful witness to Peter, his brother. Verse 40 of John 1, where we left off, Andrew, Simon, Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what Jesus or John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother, Simon, and tell him, we have found a Messiah. That is the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. Now Jesus says something about Simon that will save for the time when we talk about Simon Peter. But Andrew, first thing he does, goes and gets his brother and says, we found the Messiah, you need to meet Jesus and he brings him to Jesus. I think there are some lessons about witnessing here that we can learn. One is that we can witness even as a new Christian. Sometimes we get the idea that we have to have gone through three courses. Evangelism, explosion, contagious Christian, some other kind of training course before we are equipped to witness to anybody. It's not true. You may not know all the answers to every question. You may have to say, give me a little time on that one. I'll go find an answer. You may not know everything that you would like to know. In fact, we will never know everything we would like to know about the Bible to be able to answer everybody's questions. But when you first get saved, you know enough to know how you got saved. You know enough to know what Jesus did for you. You know enough to explain what you understand about the gospel. And that's where it all begins. It is possible for us to witness even as newborn babes in Christ. Andrew did. First thing you did after he met Jesus was to go find his brother and say, you got to meet Jesus. Second lesson we can learn is that there's no need for a command to go. There's no need for a command for us to witness. Andrew didn't need one. We don't have any indication that Jesus said, okay, Andrew, here's Christianity 101. You go find your brother or someone else you can witness to. There's nothing said as far as we know that way. There was just something in the heart of Andrew that said, I found the answer to life. I don't need a command from Christ to go. I just want someone else to know what I have found today. Good place to start would be my brother. See we don't need commands to go. Sometimes we pray God give me a burden for the lost. We don't need to pray for a burden for the lost. What we need to do is just obey what God's told us to do. And if we know Jesus as our Savior, there ought to be a burning desire for other people to know him anyway. We don't need a command to go or a burden to develop before we go. Andrew just went. Third thing I see about Andrew's witness to Peter is his concern for his family. And certainly what will be concerned about our families. It's a good place to start. You may not be the one who reaches your family. You may not be in the most effective position to do that. But don't shy away from witnessing to family members. I know what we often think. Well they know me. They know all the dirt about my life and they'll never listen to me. Well, if you've really come to know Christ, there should be some change in your life that would give you some platform to stand on to tell them about Christ. And once again, even though you may not be the one to reach them, it's a good place for you to start. It's reaching out to your family with the gospel. I think the most wonderful lesson about evangelism from Andrew, however, is you never know how far reaching your witness may be. Andrew brings his brother Peter to Christ. Look at what God does with Peter. God takes a fisherman and molds him through a very difficult process. I might add, but molds him into the kind of man who will preach a sermon on the day of Pentecost through which 3,000 people will be saved. So here we have a man who wins someone else to Christ. That person who has won to Christ will become the apostle to the Gentiles. Jesus says, I'll give you the keys of the kingdom. You never know what's going to happen to someone you share Christ with. No, probably all of you in here would recognize the name D.L. Moody. Probably a few of you would know the name Ed Kimball. Ed Kimball is the Sunday school teacher who got a burden for that teenage boy who was in his class in Massachusetts and walked into a shoe store where that teenage boy was working. Sat down with him and explained to him the gospel and that teenage boy by the name of D.L. He trusted Jesus as his savior. There are going to be a lot of Ed Kimbles in heaven. A lot of people whose names are not known, they've never written sermons or preached on the radio. They've never held citywide crusades, but they may have been responsible for a simple witness to a Sunday school child whom God later groomed into a person who would be a D.L. Moody or Charles Haddon Spurgeon or Billy Graham. Andrew is that kind of witness. He faithful to witness as God gives you opportunity. You never know what God may do with that. He witnessed a Peter, but also in John chapter 12 the Bible says he witnessed to some Greeks. This is an interesting encounter. Look at John chapter 12. John chapter 12, verse 20. Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast. They came to Philip who was from Betheseda and Galilee with a request. Sir, they said, we would like to see Jesus. Philip went to tell Andrew. Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. What's interesting about this is that these Greeks who are probably God-fears, probably people who understand something about the God of Israel, and at least to some degree fear God may be even our worshipers of God. There are numerous occasions where that happens, particularly in the book of Acts where you find people who were Gentiles, but new and believed in the God of the Old Testament. These Greeks were here at the feast days in Jerusalem, again near the end of Christ's ministry, and they want to see Jesus. Philip doesn't know what to do with that. Now we're going to see later on Philip as the analytical, logically thinking kind of cold calculator type of guy among the apostles. And he's not quite sure what to do with this kind of request because in his mind he cannot compute these Gentiles coming to Jesus when Jesus has made it very clear he goes to the house of Israel. So he can't put that together. So he's not sure what to do so he goes to his buddy Andrew. He says, Andrew, got these Greeks over here wanting to see Jesus. Should we? We take them to see Jesus. I mean they're not Jews, they're Gentiles, should we? And Andrew, he's not real sure what to do either, but he decides we got to tell Jesus about this. So he goes to Jesus, straight to Jesus with the question. And what happens next, we don't have time to read it, but Jesus begins to talk about his hour has now come and he talks about a grain of wheat falling into the ground and germinating and bringing forth much fruit and he's talking about the cross. You see this very mention of Gentiles who are interested in seeing him causes Jesus to think about the cross which will provide the basis for anyone to be saved, Jew or Gentile, regardless. Jesus begins to talk about the cross. Now what happened to these Greeks, we don't know. It would be wonderful to know maybe one of the questions we ought to ask Andrew when we get to heaven. Andrew, whatever happened to those guys back there in John 12, did they come to Christ, did they get saved after the death of Pentecost? What happened to them? I'd like to know. But Andrew did the right thing, he came to Jesus. Now interestingly enough in the case of Peter, Andrew told Peter about Jesus. In the case of the Greeks, Andrew told Jesus about the Greeks. You see sometimes it's better to go tell someone about Jesus. Sometimes the more important thing to do is to tell Jesus about the person you want to win Christ. Prayer. Both are important in witnessing. Andrew does both. He talks to people about Jesus. He talks to Jesus about people. And we would do well to follow his example. The third thing about Andrew is that he was a good servant. He was a good servant. Three characteristics of a good servant. The first one is that he was a willing servant. Look at Matthew 4, Matthew 4, verse 18. As Jesus was walking beside the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother, Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen. One follow me. Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and followed him. Now by this point they were already disciples. They were already following Jesus in the sense that he was the teacher that they were following. They were listening to him preach, but they had not yet left their vocation. They were still working their day jobs. But now Jesus is calling them to be full time followers of him, to walk with him day in and day out wherever he will go. And what is amazing about this is the Bible says immediately at once they left and followed him. A good servant is a willing servant, one for whom the Lord does not have to twist his or her arm for obedience. When God says something at once, at once, at once, we're ready. We're willing to do whatever God tells us to do. It's a good servant, a willing servant. Secondly, a good servant is a humble servant. Look again at verse 18. Notice how the two brothers are mentioned. Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. Peter is mentioned first here. That's the first time when they're found together that Peter is mentioned before Andrew. And from this time on, Peter will gain the ascendancy, if you will, the priority of place among the disciples. He will become more prominent in the disciples than Andrew. Now wait a second, it was Andrew that was responsible for Peter coming to know the Lord. But it doesn't take long for Peter to become more prominent. But you know what? I never find Andrew complaining about that in the Bible. I never find Andrew saying, oh wait a second, Peter. You wouldn't even be here if it weren't for me. Give me a little bit of the credit here. You never find that. I know I'm reading between the lines just a little bit here, but I think what you see of Peter or Andrew is a man who was willing to say, I'm satisfied with the ministry. The Lord has given me, if the Lord chooses to give my brother a different ministry that's more recognized, more public, more out there, that's fine with me too. I'm not looking to be Peter, I just want to be Andrew. That's a great lesson there for us. You know, we don't need to try to be someone else to get the acclaim or whatever that someone else may have. Be content to be whoever God has called you to be, wherever He wants you to be, doing whatever He wants you to do, and don't worry about your brother or someone else who's doing something that may be more spectacular in some people's eyes than what you're doing. When we lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana, or close to Fort Wayne, Indiana, lived in South Whitley back in the 80s, we would often go to the symphony concerts in Fort Wayne. The Fort Wayne Philharmonic, you know, we didn't have season tickets or anything, but we would occasionally save our shackles. When we saw a concert that had a piece that we really enjoyed, we'd go here to concert. There's nothing like hearing a symphony concert in person. No recording can come close to hearing one in person. I mean, a full symphony orchestra. You know, it was always interesting to watch the first violinist. The first violinist is kind of the key player in this orchestra. After everybody else is in there, the first violinist walks in right before the conductor and everybody applauds. I mean, this is kind of the leader of the orchestra. And I would often watch the first violinist, and usually you could tell. They may have a solo piece if it was a violin concerto or something. And they really look good. But then I got interested in watching the other violinists. And they're in a major orchestra, you know, 1520 of them besides the first violinist. And you watch them, and it's not like they're sitting there saying, well, I'll strum a little bit, but I can't do what first chair does. No, when you watch them play, they are into it just as energetically and with their whole body and mind and soul as the first violinist is. It's not like if I can't be first violinist, then just forget it. It's not like that at all. They all pour themselves into whatever part they're supposed to play, even if it's a backup part. There's a lesson to be learned there. Church is like a good symphony orchestra. You don't have a lot of first chair violinists or other instruments in the orchestra. There are a lot of role players, backup players, people whose ministries are not out front and seen as much. But if they don't play their part with as much faithfulness and zeal as the first chair person does, the symphony doesn't sound right. It doesn't work right. The same thing with the church. Andrew is an example of a guy who's willing to take a little lesser role, but still be just as important as his brother Peter was. So here's a humble servant. He's a willing servant, but he was also a faithful servant. Let me just mention this one. In John chapter 6, verses 8 and 9, this is a story of the feeding of the 5,000. And you remember Jesus is telling the disciples they need to have these people sit down. They're going to be fed. The disciples have no clue where they're going to get the money. Philip speaks up first and says, we don't have enough money. We'll see again his calculating analytical mind a little bit later in this series. But if you have John 6 open, look at verse 8. Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother spoke up. Here's a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish. But how far will they go among so many? And Andrew is discouraged a little bit and is real lack of faith here about what Jesus can do. He's at least, at least. He is faithful to bring this boy to Jesus. He's always bringing somebody to Jesus. In this case, he's bringing this little boy. I don't know what we got here, Lord. I don't know if this is what you're looking for. I don't know if this will help any, but whatever he can do, he's going to be faithful to do it. I mean, it doesn't look like much when there are 5,000 men to be fed to bring a little boy. But whatever he can do, he's going to do it. If he finds anybody with a scrap of food, he's going to bring him. He's just faithful, a faithful servant to do whatever needs to be done. The work of God could not be done without people like that. Without people who would say, I don't know if this is really what you need or if this really helps, but whatever I can see to do, I'm going to do it. Faithful servants. And he obviously remained faithful throughout his ministry because he's still in the upper room with the disciples after the resurrection of Jesus. There's a lot we can learn from Andrew. Andrew is an earnest, sincere disciple, seeking, following, learning truth. Andrew is a faithful witness to Peter and to some Greeks. Andrew is a good servant who's willing, humble, faithful, lot we can learn from this guy. He didn't write any books in the New Testament. He didn't preach on the day of Pentecost. There's a lot to learn from Andrew. And the church could not be what it is without a lot of Andrews. Maybe you're one of them. I encourage you to stay with the stuff, be faithful to whatever God's given you to do. Let's pray together. While we thank you for the example of a man who challenges us to be whatever we can be for you, regardless of how significant or insignificant it may look in our eyes, help us just to be faithful to you, to be earnest and sincere about our service, to be faithful in our witness, and to be good servants of yours. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.