The First Thing

Read‍

John 1:40-42 "Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, 'We have found the Messiah' (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, 'You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas' (which, when translated, is Peter)."

Think

Andrew never preached a famous sermon. He never wrote a book of the Bible. There is no chapter anywhere with his name on it.

Look at how the verse even introduces him. "Andrew, Simon Peter's brother." He is identified by his relationship to somebody more famous, which is a strange thing to be permanently known for.

And Andrew is one of the most important people in the New Testament, because of a sentence in verse 41.

"The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon."

The first thing. Not eventually. Not after he had studied up and made sure he could handle the follow-up questions. Andrew spent one afternoon with Jesus, and the first thing he did with the rest of his life was go find his brother.

Then read exactly what he said, because it is shorter than any of us would make it. "We have found the Messiah." And then, "he brought him to Jesus."

That is the whole method. One sentence and a walk.

Andrew did not have a strategy. He did not open with a hard question or work Jesus into the conversation naturally. He said what he had found and he physically brought his brother to the person he had found.

Now here is what Andrew could not possibly have known while he was doing it.

Simon becomes Peter. Peter is the one who preaches in Jerusalem when the church begins, and three thousand people give their lives to Jesus in a single day. Peter is the one who walks into houses nobody thought the gospel was for. Peter is one of the people the entire early church was built on. There are two letters in your Bible with his name at the top.

Every bit of that traces back to a brother who could not wait to tell him.

Andrew had no way to see any of it. On that afternoon, Simon was not Peter. He was a fisherman with a temper and a big mouth who would eventually deny he even knew Jesus. If Andrew had waited until Simon looked like a good candidate, he would have waited forever.

You have no idea what is on the other side of one invitation.

That should do something to how you look at your list of people, because most of us have quietly ranked them. There is the friend who might say yes and the friend who definitely will not. There is the one who would fit in and the one who would be weird about it.

Andrew invited the loud one. The difficult one. The one who was going to embarrass himself in public repeatedly.

And notice who Andrew went to first. Not a stranger. Not an easy person. His brother, which is almost always the hardest one, because the people who live in your house have seen every version of you and they will not be impressed by a new one.

Something else worth catching in verse 42. The moment Simon shows up, Jesus looks at him and immediately calls him something he is not yet. You will be called Peter, which means rock, said to a man who was about as steady as weather.

Andrew brought his brother as he was. Jesus started calling him what he would become. Nobody needed Simon to be ready first.

So who is the person you have quietly written off as too far, too loud, too difficult, or too unlikely?

Apply

Go to the hard one – Andrew brought his brother before his brother was Peter. On September 30 no one in that room will be able to tell which student God intends to build something on, and that includes you. So don’t rank your friends by how likely they seem. Write down the name of the person you decided would never say yes, pray for them by name today, and ask them before this weekend is over.

Pray

God, I have already decided how some people would respond, and I have never actually asked them. I do not know what you are planning to do in anybody. Help me stop ranking people by how likely they seem and just bring them to you. In Jesus' name. Amen.