The Apprentice #1: Andrew Series

Last season’s new TV reality show “The Apprentice” centering around Donald Trump was a big hit. The 58 year old Trump commands an empire of over 100 companies, billions of dollars, and some of the most illustrious buildings in the world. The newest addition to the Trump kingdom is a massive skyscraper under construction in Chicago and that project is being supervised by Bill he winner of the first season of The Apprentice.

This season began 10 days ago with a new group of business hopefuls vying for the job of a lifetime. The position: Trump is looking for the right person to come and work with him in a high level role in one of his companies. 18 candidates arrived on the scene for a 15 week job interview. They came from all over the country from all walks of life, the best and brightest of what America has to offer: attorneys, stockbrokers, executives, and entrepreneurs. Those who watch the show become acquainted with these candidates and select their own favorites while Trump decides by the process of elimination-- AKA firing candidates each week in the board room--who he will select as one of his inner circle, his leaders, his apprentice.

Almost 2000 years ago there was a 30 year old man who had more power and influence than Donald Trump could ever dream of. And he was ready to begin a three year venture of building a Kingdom here on earth that would alter the course of human history and would stand forever. How did he begin? He began with a search for a team, an inner circle. High level leaders who would take on the leadership of his Kingdom after he completed His mission here.

This morning we are going to begin a brief series in which we will get to know the “Apprentices” Jesus chose. What type of people were they? What does that tell us about the type of person God chooses today?

When I ask you to picture the disciples…which name is the first to come to your mind. Think of one. Take a poll. Just one that you thought of first.

How many:

Peter

John

Matthew

Judas Iscariot

James

How many another name? How many of you were Andrew?

Andrew is not the name that is thought of first. He is not the most famous. The most recognized. But he was the first disciple chosen by Jesus. When Jesus began His mission to proclaim the Good News that He was the Messiah sent to save the world. This was the first man He chose. So this morning we want to look at Andrew to see what we can learn about the type of person God chooses.

1. What type of Person was Andrew?

Andrew’s name gives us some indication of what type of person he was. His name in Greek literally means “Manly”. From everything we know of him he was a man’s man. He was from Galilee where he was a fisherman. He was probably in good physical shape, worked hard at fishing, it was hard physical labor. Sometimes from movies or paintings we have images of Jesus and the disciples that are very milk toast and weak. Well that is certainly not the type of person Andrew was. He was a man’s man.

Another thing we can know about Andrew is that he was very ordinary. Andrew was the first disciple chosen. But as we saw he is not the most renowned. The most extraordinary. What is Andrew most famous for? His brother. Andrew was Simon Peter’s brother. There are four lists of the disciples every time Peter is listed first. It was Peter who stepped out of the boat in the storm to walk on water, it was Peter who drew the sword to protect Jesus, it was Peter who made professions of faith in a big way and Peter who denied Jesus in a big way. It was Peter who preached the first sermon in Acts when 3000 came to Christ and were baptized. Peter wrote 2 letters that we have in the Bible by his name, and he is mentioned by name 153 times in the New Testament. Peter was Extraordinary!

Andrew by contrast is only mentioned by name in 12 times in the Bible, and some of those are just the lists of disciples, he is referred to in only four main occurrences throughout all four gospels. Peter always seemed to be in the spotlight. Andrew always seemed to be in the shadows. Peter was extraordinary. Andrew was ordinary. When Jesus chose his first disciple He didn’t choose an extraordinary person. He chose a very ordinary guy.

Andrew was an ordinary guy, a man’s man who communicated a lot more by what he did than what he said. And the third thing we see is that no matter how hard his body was…his heart was soft. His heart was soft and moldable. We know that He was a follower of John the Baptist before he was a follower of Jesus. Now John the Baptist wasn’t the kind of preacher that pulled any punches. John told people the way it was. He was strong, direct and he called them to repent and be baptized in the Jordan River in preparation for the coming Messiah. And Andrew responded to John the Baptist. He repented. He was moldable.