Message
John 1:35-42
Andrew - Always on the Lookout
Message
Have you noticed that there are many “lists” available for living successfully in this world?
• Here are the 12 steps for those who are struggling with debt.
• Recently I was emailed a list of “36 habits to reduce stress”.
• Then there are the lists available for those who are addicted to computers.
And the lists go on. Ways to make friends. Ways to improve your love life. Ways to increase finances. Ways to lose weight.
But there is one thing about these lists that is common to all of them …
… probably there are several items we are not doing.
… and we may find that a re-commitment is in order.
… but often these lists don’t tell us much that is really new.
You know what. That is how it can be in the Christian life as well. We do grow – but when it comes to the basic issues of following the call of God, we learn very early on what we are basically supposed to be doing.
Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of the basics. That is what we are going to see today. We are going to be reminded of the spiritual matters which need to regain our priorities. And the disciple who is going to show us that is Andrew.
Who is Andrew?
Mark 1:16 tells us that Andrew was the brother of Peter. At the time when Jesus found them they were living in the same house in Capernaum ... Mark 1:21 tells us that. We also know that Andrew became a disciple of Jesus. Apart from these issues we don’t know much else except what we are told in two passages of Scripture. Let’s read them.
John 1:35-42
John 6:1-13
You can see why Andrew makes a good disciple of Jesus. It’s because when we first meet Andrew, he is already a disciple of John the Baptist.
• (vs.35) the next day John was there with two of his disciples.
• (vs.37) the two disciples followed Jesus.
• (vs.40) Andrew … was one of the two … who had followed Jesus.
Andrew was thrilled by the voice and the personality of the stern and fiery prophet John who ate honey and locusts. Andrew was also eagerly waiting for the One of whom John always spoke. The wait stops when John sees Jesus and proclaims Look, the Lamb of God.
You don’t need to be a Christian for too long before you hear Jesus described as The Lamb of God. So it might come as a real surprise to discover that this phrase The Lamb of God is only used twice in Scripture. Here and verse 29.
The Lamb of God. It is not a very common description which the Bible uses of Jesus – but it is a description which powerfully portrays who Jesus is. You see Lamb picks up on the OT sacrificial system where lambs by the thousands, by the millions, were slaughtered and sacrificed to cover the debt of sin. And John is saying,
"There is a new Lamb in town. The Ultimate Lamb. The Supreme Lamb. The One Lamb who can fully take away the sin of the world. No other sacrifice ever needs to be made. The Lamb is on the scene and that means our sins can be completely forgiven”.
The Lamb of God.
The Lamb who took on human flesh.
The Lamb who washes us totally clean.
The Lamb who makes us realise that we cannot save ourselves.
We go through life and it is difficult. We have had global tragedies. We have had personal tragedies. There are times when we feel boxed into a corner and we have our heads in our hands and we’re saying, "This stuff is going to win. I can't beat it. I can't defeat it". And you’re right. On your own you won’t … you can’t. But with the Lamb anything is possible.
The day after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed, a sign appeared in the churchyard of a small church in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The sign simply said:- "The Lamb Wins."
That is the glorious Gospel Truth. The Lamb Wins.
Not sin.
Not disease.
Not death.
Not tragedy.
The Lamb who can defeat those things in your life … the Lamb who compels us to follow as His disciple. Andrew was compelled … and he followed.
Now here is the challenge for us ... in fact it is the challenge that all people who are confronted by Jesus have.
Why is it that we are sometimes so reluctant to follow, and keep following, when we know so much about who Jesus is and what Jesus has done?
Andrew has one phrase ... the Lamb of God. In contrast we have the whole story.
• We know about the judgement of Pontius Pilate who initially proclaimed that Jesus was innocent, but who gave into the demands of the crowd so that he would be declared guilty.
• We have watched as the Lamb silently endures the whipping, then the crown of thorns, then the mocking, then the nails – the agony of the words, Why have you forsaken Me?
• We have seen Him breathe His last as the earth shakes and graves are ripped open - the Lamb of God, dead, buried, three days in the silence of the tomb.
• We have seen the silence being broken He is not here, He has arisen. Death is conquered. The grave is no longer the final answer.
We see this clearer than the first disciples did. Yet sometimes we can be so reluctant to follow. To follow radically, with lives changed in earnest repentance.
My friends it isn’t that the message is necessarily new, but it is more a matter of rethinking our priorities. As we do rethink our priorities we are also challenged by Andrew in another way. As soon as Andrew realises who Jesus is he can’t wait to tell others – he immediately shares the Gospel. His message was simple We have found the Messiah. And the first person he shared that news with was his older brother Peter. As often happens, they were brothers who were not at all alike.
Peter was impulsive … Andrew was quiet and reserved.
Peter sought the limelight … Andrew was happy to kept himself in the background.
Peter was the born leader … Andrew was the follower and helper.
Peter wasn’t the sort of man who took suggestions well. He was used to having his own way and going where he pleased. Which makes this little incident all the more remarkable. Andrew had every reason to expect his big gruff brother to scoff
"Well, so you’ve found the Messiah! You of all people, my quiet little brother, found Him in a crowd at a river bank, huh! Andrew, you’re out of your mind!"
Andrew might have expected that reaction, and maybe it’s exactly what happened. We don’t know. We do know that he went to his brother and spoke to him with a joy in his voice and a fervour in his soul that could not be denied.
There were some gold miners digging for gold. One of them noticed an unusual stone and he cracked it open and inside it was filled with gold, soon they were finding many stones and suddenly it dawned on them. They had hit the jackpot, "We're rich!" Now they needed to go back in to town for more supplies but they decided they would not tell anybody about this. When in town neither breathed a word about their discovery, yet, as they left town a group began to follow them. The group said, "We know that you have found gold". "How do you know? Who told you?" The group said, "Nobody! It shows on your faces!"
Peter may have been sceptical but he couldn’t deny that something had changed – it was written all over Andrew’s face. And notice something really important here ... Andrew only knows so little about Jesus. But that doesn’t matter. Andrew realises that Jesus needs to be central so Andrew begins to let others know.
When does a candle begin to shine – only when it’s already half burnt? Of course not. It begins to shine as soon as it is lit. Jesus says, let your light shine. Jesus says, go make disciples. Christians let others know what we are on about ... it is what we are made to do right from the very beginning of our walk with the Lord.
We may not be fully prepared or have the greatest ability to tell others about Jesus – but we know Jesus as Saviour. We know about forgiveness by grace because of what Jesus has done. And that qualifies us.
That doesn’t mean we all have to become up-front evangelists. After all, who is Andrew? Even though Andrew is one of the first disciples he doesn’t end up being the team spokesman. Andrew is not a Simon Peter. Andrew is an “introducer” ... he just introduces people to Jesus. That's all. But that’s enough.
Which means all of us can be involved in the process of sharing the Gospel. We may think that we should leave the job to someone who knows more or speaks clearer. But Jesus is calling on all of us to be who we are – disciples who share the Gospel. Disciples who recognise that sometimes it is the simple message spoken in love that is the most powerful, especially when it is spoken to people who know us well enough to know the words are sincere and real for us.
Andrew was this sort of disciple, and that was OK with Jesus. He just gets on with the job by bringing people to Jesus. In fact that is what he is doing in John 6:1-13.
Crowds have been following Jesus – most of them were not boy scouts because they were not prepared. Jesus wants to feed the crowd, so He tests the disciples. In the end it is Andrew who comes through – well sort of. Here is a boy with five small barley loaves, and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?
Andrew met this boy and brought him to Jesus. Five barley loaves and two fish, less than most of us would take to a picnic. Andrew himself wasn’t quite sure how that would help, but it was all the food he could find and so he brought the boy and his lunch basket to Jesus, and he knew – he trusted – that Jesus somehow would do the rest. He said, “Jesus, here’s Tommy. Can I introduce You? Oh, and by the way, Tommy has his lunch”. From that time the young boy’s life was changed forever. He went home that day saying, “I was talking to Jesus and Jesus used my lunch to feed 5,000 men”.
It’s an amazing thing when someone who thinks they are nobody all of a sudden realises they matter to God. That is what Andrew did. He brought people to Jesus, then Jesus did the rest. You don’t have to be the up-front person to introduce people to Jesus. You don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t even have to see people converted. But when you are a disciple telling people about Jesus becomes your priority.
Now I know that this is not something we haven’t heard before – and if I asked you to tell me what this passage was teaching I’m sure most of us would have said “We have got to tell others about Jesus”. The issue is not knowledge – it is priorities. The priority that comes when we know Jesus as The Lamb of God.
• The Lamb who decided that eating with sinners was better than eating with the religious elite.
• The Lamb who identified with the outcasts, the unwanted, the poor and the defenceless.
• The Lamb who knew we were never going to make it on our own and then did what was necessary to make us God’s friends.
We know this Lamb. Some of us just a little and some very much. We have the knowledge – we just need the priority.
Prayer
