Andrew – a quite disciple

I suppose within the company that he kept,he was a pretty ordinary bloke.  He didn’t seem to be any great academic,or a zealous spokesman.  In the pecking order his name hardly ever appeared,save for a couple of seemingly minor occasions.  No great linguistic utterance ever dropped form his lips,no great revelations of inner light.  In fact he always seemed to be taking second place,putting others ahead of himself!

But Andrew was obviously a thinker.  He stopped and listened to what Jesus had to say.  He weighed the words of Jesus and found them appealing and reasonable.  And on the basis of his perception he made a conscious decision to follow Jesus.  Immediately,that decision impacted upon the life of someone who was very close to him – his brother,Simon Peter.

All our important decisions in life must impact and influence those with whom we share the intimacy of living.  If we really have someone who is close to us,who means something to us,like Andrew we will naturally want to share with them that which has brought happiness and real meaning to our lives.  That is a natural human response.  Or is it?

One suspects that the natural human response begins to falter when we move into the world of the spiritual.  We find it a little more difficult to share our spiritual experience and our relationship with God with those who mean a lot to us.  Curious isn’t it?  That which is the best thing that can happen to them,we are at odds to tell them about.

Andrew may well have been just an ordinary bloke.  Perhaps his only ability was that of bringing a friend to hear Jesus.  Like Andrew,ours may not be the gift of evangelism,of actually explaining the gospel and leading another to Christ.  However,all of us can develop that gift which Andrew employed,the gift of friendship that results in bringing another to the place where they can hear the gospel message proclaimed.

Those who study the history of the Church refer to a phenomenon which they call the “redemptive lift”.  It simply means that when a person really gets saved their whole lifestyle is so transformed that everything about them,including their economic circumstances,receives an upward lift.

The reality of God is that he chooses to use the ordinary blokes,rather than the high fliers.  The great majority of Bible heroes are ordinary blokes.  Shepherds,who were on the bottom of the pecking order in Jewish society,carpenters,fishermen,tent makers,tax collectors.  It’s clear that Andrew lived under his brother’s shadow.  Peter stood out in the crowd,was outspoken,forceful,authoritative.  Perhaps to Andrew matters of precedence and places of honour and authority were of little concern.  All that seemed to matter to him was that he serve Jesus.  Wherever Andrew surfaces in the gospels he is bringing another to Jesus.

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He brought his brother.  He brought the boy with the five loaves and two small fishes so that the multitude might be fed (John 6:8).  He brought the Greeks who wanted to know the Christ.  (John 12:20-21) He stands out as a man who was indeed “his brother’s keeper”,one of those quiet,faithful people who make no claim on fame,no stake on glory,but who faithfully display their spirituality by obedience and action.  Having found Jesus,his greatest joy is to introduce others to him.  How the world needs ordinary blokes like Andrew today.

Andrew probably never fully comprehended the profound importance of his simple act of bringing Peter to meet Jesus.  Peter was to become one of the most important foundations of the Christian Church.  Andrew’s simple action changed the course of world history.

None of us will ever know just how far our actions will reach.  Perhaps in the simple act of bringing another to hear the good news about Jesus,we may bring another Simon Peter,or a William Booth.  Only time and eternity reveal the results of faithful discipleship like Andrew’s.