Andrew Simon Peter's Brother

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ANDREW, SIMON PETER’S BROTHER

Key Scripture: John 6:1-15

After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.

Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.

And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.

Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.

Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?”

But this He did to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.

Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.”

One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?

Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number, about five thousand.

And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as many as they wanted.

So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.”

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

Then those men, when they saw the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

As believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we want our lives to count and be worth something to others. This means that we don’t just sit around, waiting for the rapture and Jesus taking us to heaven to be with Him, because God has put us on earth for a purpose, and the purpose is to see His kingdom built. However there is a problem, because at various times in our walk with the Lord, it feels like we don’t have enough. Not enough time to serve, because my diary is full of things that I need to do or I am not as gifted as somebody else or else my finances are a bit tight at the moment, so I cannot afford to give. Whatever excuse

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you may have as to why you think you don’t have enough, God can use it, and it is not for us to get the glory, but give Him the glory that is due to Him. If we are not serving then our lives feel like an upward or uphill struggle, just waiting to get to heaven, because it is doing one day after another’s tasks and not achieving anything. It can be true for many Christians who are just waiting to spend eternity with Jesus Christ on a face to face encounter with Him in heaven. However that is not the way we ought to live and it is not living out the purpose and plans that God has for you. We are called to bring the gospel to those who are lost and we should be walking in good works every day, doing our utmost to please Him. (Eph 2:10) This evening we are going to look at a passage of Scripture of how God works through ordinary people in order to accomplish His purposes even when it seems as though they don’t have enough. The passage of scripture we are going to break down is known as the feeding of the five thousand. In order to be able to understand this passage, we need to have a look at the context wherein it was written. Jewish culture during that time, only counted the heads of the family, so it would be okay if you speak about the five thousand men, but when you include wives and children, it would be more than twenty thousand people that were fed. Andrew dwas the brother of Simon Peter and was the first of the twelve to follow Jesus. One of the first things that he did after becoming a disciple of Jesus, he found his brother and said we have found the Messiah. Andrew in fact brought Peter to Jesus. I want to point out three things from this passage of how God works through ordinary people so that His purposes can be accomplished, even though what you seem to have may be a little.