Andrew Was Not Average (Part 3)

Andrew is not mentioned in detail in any other Gospel except the Gospel of John. He is mentioned a grand total of 12x. And this is a man who, despite the fact that he followed Christ as a disciple, also missed a lot of the action. He was not present at Jesus’ transfiguration in Matthew 17 or the healing of Jairus’ daughter in Mark 5 or even with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion. Andrew preached no sermons that were worth recording, wrote no books for the N.T. and performed no recorded miracles. Yet, despite all that lack of notoriety or popularity and despite the fact that he is only mentioned a few times in the Gospel of John, we can learn much from this disciple. He is well worth our consideration.

His Evangelism

Just as Andrew was introduced to Jesus by John the Baptist, Andrew would become unforgettable for his practice of introducing other people to Jesus. Andrew was always bringing people to Jesus. Of these twelve disciples, you could call him the missionary apostle. And his mission work began where? Who was the 1^st person he led to Christ? His own brother Peter. “One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him,’We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).’ (John 1:40-41).

Andrew began in his own family. He was all about household evangelism. When he was given the truth that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, he ran home to tell his brother this great news: “Peter, we have found the Man we have been looking for! He is here! Come and I will show Him to you!”

How concerned are you for the ones in your own family who aren’t saved? Or even those closest to you? If you want to know where to start in witnessing, start with your family; this is what Andrew did. Andrew brought his brother to Jesus.

Let me show you another example of Andrew’s passion for lost souls. In John 12, it was the time of the Passover, which was a time in which people gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the day Israel left Egypt. It symbolized the sacrifice of a lamb in Egypt when the people of Israel were slaves. The Hebrews smeared the blood of the lamb on their doorposts as a signal to God that He should “pass over” their houses when He destroyed all the firstborn of Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to let His people go. So Jesus and His disciples were coming to Jerusalem for Passover. “Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus’” (John 12:20-21).

So here are some Gentiles here for Passover and they want to see Jesus. So they logically find one of Jesus disciples, Philip, and say, “Take us to Jesus.” They thought, “If we want to get close to Jesus then let’s just find one of His disciples.” And you would think that Philip would jump on this opportunity and escort them to the Messiah, but He didn’t. He didn’t know what to do with these Gentiles, but he knew that Andrew would know what to do. So he took them to Andrew. Look at verse 22 – “Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.”

Andrew brought these Gentiles to Jesus. He didn’t even hesitate or interrogate them about why they wanted to see the Lord. He simply saw their need for Christ and brought them to Jesus.

And even Philip knew this was the kind of man Andrew was because he brought them to Andrew first. Andrew showed no prejudice; he knew that both Jew and Greek and Gentile and Samarian needed the Gospel. So he brought them to Jesus.

What an exhortation that is for us in our outreach Witnessing is bringing people to Jesus. And you know what, we don’t have to have all the right answers to lead someone to Christ. In fact, if you can’t share the Gospel effectively, then bring that person to someone who can. Just because you may not be ready or don’t have enough courage or don’t know what to say doesn’t mean that person can’t hear the Gospel. Take that person to someone else who can witness to him or her. Bring them to church; they’ll hear the Gospel clearly here. Take that person to Jesus.

You never know what kind of impact you will have by simply bringing people to Jesus. The most important person in the foundation of the Church Age, the man who Christ chose to be the leader of the disciples and the Church was a man named Peter. And he was led to Christ by who? Andrew.

Sometimes it takes an Andrew to win a Peter. Are you an Andrew when it comes to evangelism? Do you bring people to Jesus? Are you prejudice about who hears and who doesn’t hear? Or is every lost soul equal in value in your mind to hear the Gospel? The fisher by career became a fisher of men by practice.