Once again we turn to the 10th Chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. We focused on the Apostle Peter last time, and we learned quite a bit about how Jesus can use the raw material of a person who is willing to be used. What do you remember about the way the disciples are grouped and paired in the Scriptures? (In all four listings, there are three groups of four that are always the same; the first man named is the leader of that group; the group that was most intimate with Jesus and was called first is always first, the second group called is second and less intimate with Jesus, and the third group called and the least intimate with Jesus is always listed last; Peter is always listed first and is distinguished as the leader of the Twelve, while Judas Iscariot is always listed dead last.)
Today we want to turn our attention to Simon Peter’s younger brother, Andrew. He was one of the two disciples called to follow Jesus at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry here on earth. And, as you will see, he was also the very first Christian missionary. Turn with me, if you will, to John 1:29-42. I want us to look at the context of when Andrew first discovers Jesus Christ and look at what his first instincts were. This will begin to show us the raw material of this man chosen by God. Let’s read this through.
Look again in verses 35-39, at what Andrew’s response was when Jesus was pointed out to him and John as the Messiah; they went to Jesus, asked where He was staying, then spent the entire day with Him. They got to know Him. They became intimate with Him, probably even eating a meal with Him since they joined up with Him at about 10:00 in the morning. Andrew and John evidently grew quite convinced that Jesus was indeed the long-awaited Promised One, and it got to the point where they couldn’t keep it to themselves any longer.
Now, in verses 41-42, we see the real underlying character of Andrew. What was his first instinct after getting to know Jesus? His first instinct was to go and tell his brother that they had found the Messiah. He was so excited that he couldn’t keep it to himself; he just had to tell someone! His first thought was of his brother Simon. This tells us that Andrew’s heart from the beginning was all about leading others to meet Jesus. This would seem to indicate, also, that these men were part of a growing number of people who were expecting the arrival of and actively interested in finding the promised Messiah.
It is easy to imagine that Andrew had lived in the shadow of his larger-than-life elder brother Simon for his entire life. It was the elder brother who made the decisions about their business. It was the elder brother who made the decisions that affected the extended family since their father was no longer with them. It was the elder brother who was the leader in everything. Simon was well-known (Jesus addresses him by his full name in verse 42); Andrew was not so much. In fact, there are several times in the gospel records when the main identifier of Andrew is as Simon Peter’s brother (Examples: Matthew 4:18, Matthew 10:2; Mark 1:16; Luke 6:14; John 6:8).
Yet, on this special occasion – the calling of the first disciples – it is the wisdom of the Lord to have Andrew lead his brother for a change. Think about the implications of that for a moment. It isn’t always the biggest, the loudest, the most flamboyant, the brightest, or even the most popular that Jesus Christ chooses to use for the significant work. It isn’t the “most-likely-to” whom God is most likely to use. Many times – most times – it is the person who lives in the shadow of others that God uses in mighty ways. Examine the Old Testament saints, as well as those in the New, and you will find this to be true over and over and over again.
As we will see, even though Andrew is not spoken of much in the gospel accounts, when they speak of him doing something, he is always consistent in what he is doing. And, even though the details are missing, they seem obvious, as you will also see.
Andrew (whose name means “manly”) lived with his brother, Simon Peter in Bethsaida (Mark 1:29; John 1:44), and the two of them owned a fishing boat and worked together (Mark 1:16-18). Whenever the group that Andrew is a part of is mentioned, he is only mentioned with the other three one time when the entire group of the Twelve is not listed. Peter, James and John are mentioned together frequently, for they were the inner circle, if you will; they were the three who were always the closest and most involved with Jesus (raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead; the Mount of Transfiguration; praying in the Garden of Gethsemane). Yet, Andrew was intimate enough with Jesus that it was to Andrew that Phillip brought the Greeks who were seeking Jesus (John 12:20-22).
Know the story of “The Feeding of the Five Thousand”? All four of the gospels record this event. Jesus fed thousands of people with a miracle on two other occasions, but this is the first time, so all four gospel writers have recorded it for us. In the account in John 6:1-14, we have the most detailed description of the conversation between Jesus and the disciples prior to the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. Look closely at John 6:5-9. Look at the interplay and the revealing of character there.
Who was it that knew there was a boy with five loaves and two fishes? Andrew, “Simon Peter’s brother”. The significant thing is, only one of the Twelve seemed to know anything about the people to whom Jesus was ministering that day. Jesus knew Phillip well enough to know that he had already calculated how many people were there and what it would cost to feed them. The other disciples had nothing really to add. The impression is that they were standing around, waiting to see what others would do in response to the need; waiting to see what would happen next; waiting to be given specific instructions that they may or may not have gotten done.
How so like much of what passes as ministry and “church” today – it is so easy to lose sight of the people and see the activities instead; so easy to focus on the “doing” instead of the “why” of the doing; so easy to expect “somebody else” to take care of what needs to be done – probably because “that isn’t my ‘gift’”. It appears that Andrew was a “people/unstructured” oriented man. He knew what was going on with the people, and seemed genuinely interested in the details of their lives. He was very much involved, very much in the center of what was happening or what could happen, yet unobtrusively so. Though he wasn’t very conspicuous, his character was. We can all learn much from Andrew, I think.
Let’s go back a little ways and look at Andrew again, now that we understand him a bit better. Simon Peter was big and loud and boisterous, and always in the forefront of everything. Yet, when his little brother came to him to tell him about Jesus Christ, Peter listened! What does that say to you about quiet consistency? What does that say about personal integrity and way of life? Simon knew well that his brother was a man who loved God and was somewhat “in tune” with spiritual things, else he probably would have scoffed at his little brother.
Andrew’s life had already demonstrated to Simon that when he asserted something as so, it was so. As I study these men and get to know their character better, I continue to discover things about them that I wish to have more of in my own character.
One famous orchestra leader and renowned violin player was asked, “What is the most difficult thing you have even been asked to play?”
“Second-fiddle,” was his reply. His response was insightful.
Andrew obviously had no trouble playing second-fiddle. In fact, it was a place where he was able to thrive. What if Andrew had held bitterness or resentment for his brother’s popularity? What if he had kept his meeting with Jesus Christ a secret? What if Andrew had said to himself, “Finally! Now Simon will be second-fiddle to me for a change!” Perhaps we might not have had a “Simon, who was called Peter”.
What we see in Andrew is a man who was humble, quiet, and reliable. He was outgoing, but in a somewhat more introverted way than his elder brother. Take special note of who it was that Andrew knew had the food in the story from John 6 – it was a “small boy”. There are a couple of accounts where the disciples are found to be shooing away the children. But, not Andrew; Andrew was interested in everyone, especially the children. Perhaps he was able to identify with the small boy – after all, he had been small, too, especially when standing next to his brother. The point is; Andrew paid attention to people, and especially to children. The two had probably had a conversation and the boy had been glad to “show-and-tell”, as children are prone to do. I get a sense that Andrew had smiled at and encouraged the boy. Perhaps the boy was even following Andrew around, watching his new-found friend who seemed to have a place close to the Teacher.
It is the “Andrews” of the world who bring the “Peters”. It is the Andrews of the world who bring the little ones. And, it is the Andrews of this world who bring the outsiders and the seekers. They seek no fame, content with second-fiddle. They seek no spotlights or billboards, content to point to others they know are greater than themselves. They write no epistles, they perform no miracles, they make no legendary speeches. Yet, they are the backbone of the Body of believers throughout the world.
Do you know the name of the man who introduced Charles Spurgeon (unnamed merchant subbing for the preacher on a snowy day) or Dwight L. Moody (Edward Kimball) or John Knox (unknown) or Billy Graham (Mordecai Ham) to Jesus Christ? Probably not. Yet, if it wasn’t for those unsung heroes, we might not have the Peter’s, or the Spurgeon’s, or the Moody’s, the Knox’s, the Graham’s or any of the other thousands of big names of the faith.
In fact, I want to take a look for a moment at an interesting chain of events in Christian history.
• Sunday School teacher Edward Kimball helped lead Dwight L. Moody to Christ;
• J. Wilbur Chapman attended a Dwight L. Moody evangelistic meeting in Chicago in the 1870’s and received personal counseling and an assurance of his salvation from Mr. Moody. He later became a friend and coworker of DL Moody, hiring a former baseball star named Billy Sunday as an advance man for him;
• Billy Sunday held an evangelistic campaign in Charlotte in 1924 and a men’s prayer and fellowship group, originally known as the Billy Sunday Layman’s Evangelistic Club and later renamed as Charlotte Businessmen’s Club (CBMC), grew out of those meetings It was this group that invited Mordecai Ham to Charlotte to hold evangelistic meetings in 1934;
• Mordecai Ham preached a sermon where a 16 year-old young man now known as Billy Graham went forward and received Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior;
• And, Billy Graham has preached to hundreds of millions of people all over the world and seen literally millions won to Christ.
See the lineage of salvation that continues to radiate today from the faithfulness of one humble, quiet man witnessing to a shoe salesman? See the impact that even a quiet life given over to Jesus Christ can have on the world around them?
Did you know that there was a time when rich households who were opposed to Christianity would refuse to hire a cook or a maid or any other household servant who was of the Methodist faith? They were well aware that the Methodists were “on-fire” for Jesus Christ, and that they had made sharing Jesus Christ the very fabric that their lives were made of. The antagonists to Christianity knew that a Methodist employee would work hard, but that they would also work to convert everyone they encountered to Jesus Christ. The wealthy who were not themselves believers knew that that cook or maid would soon convert the rest of the staff, and that group would soon be followed by the family itself. Many of those Methodists were much like Andrew – they knew Jesus Christ personally, intimately, and they wanted everyone else to know Him, too. Yet, they brought others to Jesus Christ in the warm, friendly, comfortable way that was a lifestyle, not a performance.
Jesus chose Andrew – quiet, unassuming, attentive, gentle Andrew – and He chose him before He chose Peter. In fact, it was John and Andrew, the two younger brothers of the two pairs of brothers, who were the first two disciples that Jesus ever called. Jesus knew Peter would be a challenge, as well as James and John. Yet, He also knew that Andrew – one-talent Andrew – Andrew would be as steady and dependable a follower as He could ask for. Andrew was more suited to evening strolls than 100-yard dashes, more suited to being a magnet that drew others instead of an electrically charged dynamo that excited others, more suited to knowing people than facts and figures. In fact, you can do a little play on words with his name – “And-drew” others to Jesus.
Andrew was friendly, he was unassuming, he was gentle, and he was humble. Proverbs 11:30 tells us one more thing about the Apostle Andrew. It says, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise wins souls.” So, Andrew was also wise. It is the Andrews of this life who can change the world.
Tradition tells us that Andrew traveled to Greece and preached in the province of Achaia. He was martyred there, being crucified on an X-shaped cross. It is said that he preached from that cross for the entire two days that it took him to die. In the fourth century, his bones were taken to Scotland. The ship transporting the relics was wrecked in a bay. The sailors made it to shore, and the bay was named Saint Andrew’s Bay. The sailors introduced the gospel of Jesus Christ to the locals, and many converts were made. Later, when the Pictish King Angus faced a large invading army, he prayed for guidance. A white cloud in the form of a saltire cross floated across the blue sky above him. Angus won a decisive victory, and decreed that Andrew would be the patron saint of his country. Following Robert Bruce’s victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, the Declaration of Arbroath officially named Saint Andrew the patron saint of Scotland. The Saltire became the national flag of Scotland in 1385. This cross is underneath another cross on the flag of the United Kingdom, as well as the flags of dozens of nations whose origins go back to the days when they were part of the British Empire.
Andrew’s gentle, friendly, devoted missionary spirit has been remembered in many ways, in many countries, by many people, even if not by name. His quiet consistency and love for Jesus Christ and his love for bringing others to Jesus have become a deeper and more penetrating legacy in the world than that of his older, louder, better-known brother.
Andrew…where are you, Andrew? There are people who need to meet your Jesus.
