John 1
40 – Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John [the Baptist] had said and who had followed Jesus.
41 – The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, We have found the Messiah (that is, the Christ).
42 – 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).
On May 24 of this year 33-year-old Erik Weihenmayer successfully climbed to the top of Mt. Everest. Now, this was an amazing feat for a number of reasons. First of all…scaling this peak is expensive. It can easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to put together and adequately equip a climbing team. It is also incredibly difficult. For this reason, 90% of those who make the attempt…turn back before they reach the summit. And obviously climbing Everest is dangerous. Since 1953 one hundred sixty five individuals have died while trying to reach its peak either by falling thousands of feet into thin air…or by being caught in an avalanche…or by freezing to death its slopes.
So for all these reasons, Erik’s accomplishment was truly amazing but the reason his climb made the cover of TIME magazine-the reason all the whole world took notice-is the fact that Erik Weihenmayer is blind. When he was 13 a rare hereditary disease caused him to lose his vision. Erik is the FIRST sightless individual to ever climb to the top of the world’s tallest mountain.The TIME article accurately states, No one has ever done anything like this. It is a unique achievement, one that in the truest sense pushes the limits of what man is capable of.
You may be thinking, How could a blind man climb Mt. Everest?And to answer your question: Erik’s team members wore bells so he could hear where to walk. He also used specially designed climbing poles so he could feel his way up the trail. At times he used them to measure the distance across crevasses before leaping over the unknown. Now blind people DEPEND on the known. They’re used to steps being the same height, city blocks roughly the same length, curbs approximately the same depth. They learn to identify the patterns in their environment and they rely on these patterns to plot their way through the world. But Everest’s slopes are always changing as its ice fields shift and crack and break so the trail to the summit is never the same. There is no regular pattern at all. As you can see, the final portion of the trail leads along a narrow, knife-edge ridge consisting of ice, snow, and fragmented ever-shifting shale. One wrong step to one side and you will fall 10,000 feet into Tibet. If you slip on the other side you fall 7,000 feet into Nepal. But all this danger doesn’t scare Erik. He says, Death is death whether you SEE it or not. And in fact Erik welcomes challenges in life. He says, There are summits everywhere. You just have to know where to look.
Now, can you imagine what Erik’s pioneering accomplishment will mean for blind people around the world!? Think of the courage it will give them to undertake new things! People are already comparing Erik to Helen Keller because thanks to his successful climb many sightless individuals have been inspired to attempt to reach their own new heights of achievement in spite of their handicap. They think, If he can climb that mountain, then I can learn to walk to work on my own…since he succeeded at the difficult, then I can as well.
You know all of us tend to greatly admire pioneering individuals like Erik-people who do something FIRST. In fact our history books are pretty much organized around these people who bravely did things before anyone else. We study Magellan, who was the first to sail around the world, Charles Lindbergh, the first to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, Neil Armstrong, the first to set foot on the moon. We all esteem these firsts-we enjoy hearing the details of their true-to-life adventures-because their bravery…their resourcefulness…challenges us. Their successes make us want to strive to excel, to be better.
And they do. We all greatly benefit from their experiences. Pilots are better at piloting aircraft because of the lessons learned by Charles Lindbergh. Sea Captains are better at steering their ships around the tip of South America thanks to the bravery of Magellan.
And, this same principle applies to Christian discipleship. We can improve our own walk with Christ by looking at the lives of those who walked with Him FIRST.
Well this summer I want you and me-the disciples who make up Redland Baptist Church-to do exactly that. I want us to learn to be better followers of Jesus by examining the lives and ministries of His FIRST followers….His FIRST disciples. We’re calling this sermon series, 12 Men and a Savior and over the next few weeks we’ll look at the lives of each of these men. This morning I want us to begin by seeing what we can learn from the life and ministry of the first disciple, Andrew, as well as that of his more popular brother, Peter. Next week we’ll examine the mystery of the betrayal of Judas Iscariot. Then, on the 15th , as we celebrate communion, I want us to look at one of the required attitudes of all disciples: that of servanthood.
This is a lesson that was first learned by James and his brother John…a.k.a…THE SONS OF THUNDER, as they watched Jesus serve His first disciples by washing their feet. Then on July 22, I want us to see what we can learn from the other seven FIRST disciples, those men who are pretty much unknown. I tend to think of them as the unsung heros of the faith.
Now, as we begin let’s ask AND ANSWER two questions? First of all, why do you think JESUS CHOOSE TWELVE APOSTLES? WHY NOT TWENTY OR THIRTY?
Well, I think He did so for symbolic reasons. I mean originally there had been twelve tribes of Israel, so these twelve apostles were symbolic of the NEW Israel.
This leads to another question…why have followers or apostles in the first place?
Well, in Mark 3:14 Jesus answers this question by giving TWO REASONS for selecting these twelve.
FIRST, the text says that Jesus did this so that the twelve might BE WITH HIM.So one reason Jesus chose these followers was because He wanted companionship. Any person in a leadership capacity is lonely and the higher the place, the higher the loneliness. In fact you could say that the PRICE of leadership is loneliness. That’s why the presidency of the United States is said to be the most forsaken place in the world. Harry Truman once said, This is a lonely job. Everybody who comes to see me wants me to do something for them. No one comes to see me for fellowship. For this reason it would be natural for Jesus to crave fellowship as He went about His Father’s work. If you look back at Genesis 1, you will see that the reason God created mankind in the first place was to fellowship with Him.
And then, the SECOND reason the text says Jesus chose the twelve was so that they might be sent out to preach.That’s what the word apostle means. Apo means away and stolos means sent. So these men were to be sent away from Jesus with His message. They were to be the means by which the good news of His love would spread to all the world. These first 12 disciples were to fulfill the original function of the original 12 tribes of Israel. Remember, as Isaiah 49:6 says, God had called Israel to …be a light to the Gentiles…to bring [God’s salvation] to the ends of the earth.
Now Jesus’ first two disciples were brothers: Andrew and Simon Peter. Their father was a man named John so in the custom of their day they were referred to as Andrew bar Jona and Simon Bar Jona. When they grew up these John’s-son boys shared a house in Capernaum and worked side by side in a family fishing business that they jointly owned with a man named Zebedee and his two sons, James and John. When John the Baptist came on the scene Andrew went to hear him preach. He became one of John’s followers and was no doubt also very familiar with the prophecy of a coming Messiah. He watched Jesus’ baptism and heard God speak from heaven saying, This is My Son Whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17 ) As we read a moment ago, John’s gospel records that Andrew then brought his brother Simon to meet Jesus.
Matthew 4 records the moment these first two disciples committed to follow Jesus. Read along with me:
18 – As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen.
19 – Come, follow Me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men.
20 – At once they left their nets and followed Him.
Now our study today is in two parts. First I want us to focus on Andrew and then Peter to see what discipleship lessons we can glean from these two pioneers of the faith.
1. Okay….let’s begin. What can we learn from Jesus’ first disciple, Andrew?
This morning I want to point out two things.
a.. First of all Andrew’s discipleship shows us that in the Kingdom of God you don’t have to be in the spotlight for God to use you in a powerful way.
I say this because even though Andrew was the protokletos…or first called…the first disciple Jesus enlisted….even though he was the first to recognize Him as the Messiah, Andrew never achieved the fame that his brother Peter did. During his years as a disciple Andrew was never included in Jesus’ inner circle. Unlike Peter, James, and John he was not taken up to the Hill of Mt. Transfiguration or in with Jesus when He healed Jairus’ daughter…or when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gesthemane prior to His arrest. Andrew never preached like Peter, never recorded a gospel like Matthew or John, nor was he ever recognized by the early church like James.
PETER’S name appears in the four gospels 96 times. Only Jesus is mentioned more often but Andrew’s name is only found 14 times and most of those times he is referred to as Peter’s brother. Peter is constantly in the center of the action. There are numerous accounts of things he said or did but Scripture only records Andrew as doing three things. Now, it takes a great deal of grace to play second fiddle, especially if it’s your own brother who’s playing FIRST fiddle! And Andrew must have learned to access this grace because he doesn’t seem to mind this arrangement. I mean in a similar situation many of us would have considered ourselves slighted.
But Andrew didn’t feel this way. He was just happy to be a humble part of the twelve. And contemporary disciples like you and me must learn-as Andrew did-that second fiddles play a very important role in the kingdom of God. God used Andrew in a powerful way-even though he did not achieve the popularity of his brother. Andrew not only brought his own brother to Jesus. He also directed the inquiring Greeks to Jesus which makes him both the first home and first foreign missionary. It was Andrew who led the boy with the lunch to Jesus. Because of that simple act our Lord fed nearly 15,000 people, a miracle that has been used to help millions understand that Jesus is the Bread of Life…that only He satisfies the inner hunger all of us have to know God. Tradition says it was Andrew who prompted John to write his gospel. So God used Andrew’s out of the spotlight ministry in amazing ways.
You know usually it takes MORE of a person to be second in life than first. And I think we see this in Andrew’s life because it seems to me that he was more spiritually mature than Peter. I think he was more loyal, had a clearer self-awareness, and a healthier self-esteem than his more popular sibling. And more of us need to learn to be like Andrew, willing to work behind the scenes, willing to serve God even if it brings us no popularity…no earthly acclaim. Too many of us only want to serve God if people notice. We shun those tasks that go unseen.
A famous symphony conductor was once asked which orchestral instrument he considered to be the most difficult to play. Without hesitation he replied: Second violin. I can get all the first violinists I need, but to find a competent and skilled second violinist who plays with enthusiasm, that’s a problem. You know, I majored in music in college and was taught that in musical compositions second violin is just as important as first. A musical score is composed for all of the instruments in an orchestra. The harmony would be incomplete and the effect of the composition diminished without a second violin.
===
This is also true of life. Seconds are just as valuable as firsts! In fact firsts need seconds.
In the late fifteenth century, Albrecht Durer and his friend Franz Knigstein were studying to be artists. Their art lessons suffered though because they were spending too much time working trying to eke out a living. So, by drawing lots they decided that Albrecht would study art full time while Franz would spend all of his time working to support the two of them. Then, when Albrecht had completed his studies and was successful they would reverse places. Albrecht would then work while Franz studied art. Well, Albrecht finished his course, and eventually his work was acclaimed. He then returned to change places with his friend. But when he arrived, he discovered what a great sacrifice Franz had made for him. He had worked at such arduous manual labor that his fingers and his sensitive hands had become permanently crippled. It was no longer possible for him to ever become an artist, but there was no bitterness in his heart. His happiness was in the joy that he had made Albrecht’s successful career as an artist possible.
One day Albrecht saw Franz kneeling, his rough and gnarled hands clasped in silent prayer. Albrecht began to sketch those rough hands. Out of that preliminary drawing came what is perhaps Albrecht’s most famous painting, simply but movingly entitled, Praying Hands. Today, we salute Franz Knigstein, who played second fiddle so magnificently that he made possible the remarkable work of Albrecht Durer. Without Knigstein, Durer might never had been an artist and without Andrew Jesus’ ministry would have been much different. So if you ever feel unappreciated by your peers, even though you work hard for our Lord, then count yourself in good company. Like Andrew, learn to die to self and play for an audience of One. Serve God and not men. As I Corinthians 10:31 says, Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
b. And then another thing we can learn from Andrew is the power of relational evangelism.
Every time Andrew is mentioned in Scripture, he is bringing someone to Jesus. His single talent seems to have been his ability to be friendly and he used this skill as a powerful tool for evangelism. Today the most effective witnesses follow Andrew’s example because almost 80% of the people who come to Christ do so through an already established friendship. People led to Christ in this way are more likely to become active in a church than people won in any other method. The plain truth is that many evangelistic efforts are not fruitful is because they end up being focused around inviting lost people to come into a church building. But to REALLY influence the lost in our community we must leave the church and go out there, making friendships with people through which we can share our faith. The salt must leave the shaker!
Roy Fish, professor of evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth said, We must cease to think of the church as a place of evangelism, and begin to think of it as the base of evangelism. The church is to be a launching pad…an equipping center…a filling station. And we are to go out from the church to witness to our friends, neighbors, and co-workers. If great cathedrals would win the world, Europe would have won it long ago. If programs would win the world, Southern Baptists would have done it long ago.
RELATIONSHIPS are what God will use to win the world because relationships bring people into a saving relationship with Jesus. Think about it. When you have a problem, a crisis in life, who do you go to first for help and comfort? FRIENDS. So who are lost people most likely to go to when they have questions about how they can fill the emptiness in their life that only God can fill? FRIENDS!
Tradition holds that Andrew used this evangelistic tactic for the rest of his life. After sharing his faith over a wide geographical area, even parts of Russia, he was put to death at a ripe old age in Greece. History says that the death of this aging disciple came after he befriended Maximilla, the wife of the Roman proconsul Aegeas, and led her to embrace a personal faith in Christ. Aegeas became so enraged over the fact that his wife had become a Christian, that he ordered Andrew to lead in offering sacrifices to a heathen god. When he refused, Andrew was beaten severely, tied to a cross, and crucified. That cross, shaped like an X is today called St. Andrew’s cross. He lingered there for two whole days before death came, and throughout those painful 48 hours he preached the gospel to all who came by, exhorting them to repentance and faith. So, Andrew never stopped sharing his faith…using his last breath to bring people to Christ. May the example of this faithful second fiddle inspire us to do the same!
Okay, let’s shift now to evaluating the discipleship of the first person Andrew brought to Christ, the apostle Peter.
2. And…of all the twelve FIRST disciples, we know the most about this big fisherman.
I Corinthians 9:5 tells us that Peter was married and that his wife accompanied him on his journeys. Clement of Alexandria reports her name to be Perpetua, states that they had children, and that she was crucified at the same time as her husband. Peter was a successful businessman and like most people in his day he probably knew Greek in addition to the Aramaic he spoke and had been taught to read the Scriptures in Hebrew. So, although he was not as educated as Paul, Peter was not just an ignorant fisherman. Perhaps for this reason he quickly became the leader of the 12 and their spokesman. Scripture records that the home in Capernaum that Peter, Perpetua, and Andrew shared served as Jesus’ headquarters when He ministered in that area. Now, in the Bible no disciple spoke more often than Peter did…and Jesus spoke to him more than any of the others. No other disciple so boldly confessed and outspokenly encouraged Jesus as Peter repeatedly did. And, no one interfered with the things Jesus was doing as often as Peter. Jesus spoke words of approval, praise, and even blessing to Peter more than to the rest of His first followers. And He also said harsher things to Peter than to any of the other twelve.
All this helps us to see that one of Peter’s biggest flaws was his mouth. Like many of us, he was always opening it when he shouldn’t. Peter was the first to speak up when it made him look good. When in the synagogue, with all the faithful listening, he gave the loudest, longest testimonies about his undying loyalty and commitment to Christ. But when he was in the workplace or before the palace guards where that kind of talk might get him in trouble he clammed up. In his book, Your God is Too Safe, Mark Buchannan suggests that there is an important principle here for us. You see, in general…
a. …it is best, to speak when we are tempted for selfish reasons to be silent and it is best for us to be silent when for selfish reasons we are tempted to speak.
When you are tempted to justify, explain, excuse, brag, gossip, or scold-it’s a good signal to button up. And when you are tempted to just lay low, let things sort themselves out, don’t rock the boat, don’t say anything that might cause trouble-that’s a good signal to speak out.
Now, as we read in John’s gospel, Peter’s original name was Simon. As I said earlier, Simon son of John. The name John literally means dove. And, as you know a dove is a fluttering, dipping, ever-changing bird. Hunters tell me that it is hard to shoot a dove because they can fly right toward you and just when you have them in your sites and are following their line of flight, they will change course. Well, when Jesus said, to Peter, You are Simon son of Dove, He may have been alluding to the vacillating nature of Peter’s character. He knew Peter was like the sea on which he worked. He was an impetuous man with quickly changing moods. Well, then Jesus said that he would call Simon ROCKY…Peter the Rock…the stable, the unchanging. That might have drawn a laugh from those who knew Simon. To them it would be like calling a baldheaded man, Curly or a fat man Slim or a tall man Shorty. But you know, in the end Simon lived up to his nickname rather than having to live it down. He was unstable….impulsive…ever-changing…but he eventually became solid and stable as a rock.
Now, there is much we can learn from Peter’s discipleship. You could preach an entire sermon series on his life but the main thing I want to point out today is that Peter’s experience shows us that…
b. …God is able to look at us and see our potential instead of our past.
God sees us not as we are — or as we were — but AS WE CAN BECOME if we let Him work in and through us. That day when Jesus said, You are Simon, son of John but you will be called Cephas-or ROCKY! He was saying, You have been and are Simon….impulsive, weak, hot-tempered, cowardly…but you will be…you have the potential of becoming PETER….a rock…firm…brave… mature….full of faith! No one else would have looked at Simon and seen that he had the potential to become a spiritual giant but God did because that is how He sees us not just as we are but as we can become if we let Him re-shape and re-mold us.
Do you remember that time Peter and Andrew and James and John had been fishing all night and had nothing to show for it? They were about to quit and head for their beds when Jesus gave Peter and Andrew and James and John fishing advice which they reluctantly followed and then caught so much fish they were afraid the boats would sink. Simon then fell on his knees before Jesus and said, Go away from me Lord…for I am a sinful man! And Jesus replied, Don’t be afraid….you have been catching fish BUT FROM NOW ON you will catch men. Jesus knew — He SAW — that Peter and the others had great possibilities in His kingdom. Because He looks beyond the past and sees the potential of all who decide to follow Him. Think of it. If Andrew and Peter had NOT followed Christ that day. If they had remained fisherman, all they would have to show for their lives would have been a pile of smelly fish but they DID leave their nets to follow Jesus…and God used them to turn the world upside down!
The Bible is full of other examples of men and women in whom God saw great potential in spite of their past. ABRAHAM, founder of Israel and tagged the friend of God, was once a worshiper of idols. MOSES was a murderer, but later became the one who delivered his nation from the slavery of Pharaoh. JEPHTHAH was an illegitimate child who ran around with a tough bunch of hoods before he was chosen by God to become His personal representative. RAHAB was a harlot in the streets of Jericho but was later used in such a mighty way that God enlisted her among the members of His hall of fame in Hebrews 11 . ELI and SAMUEL were both poor inconsistent fathers but proved to be strong men in God’s hand regardless. JONAH and JOHN MARK were missionaries who ran away from hardship like cowards but God matured them and used them to minister to millions. PAUL was so hard and vicious in his early life that the disciples and apostles refused to believe he’d actually become a Christian but you know how greatly God used him! We could go on and on. Because, the files of heaven are filled with stories of redeemed, refitted renegades and rebels.
CURT CLOLINGER is a Christian actor. He has the unique talent of being able to do several different monologues in the same play assuming many various roles with a quick costume change in between. One of my favorite skits, written and performed by CLOLINGER shows him playing the part of one of Jesus’ followers who is telling of a get together of other followers of the Master. He describes this party as a gathering of used-to-be’s….people who used to be one thing but were saved from their past and given great potential through the power of God. At this party was Mary Magdalene who used to be a harlot, Matthew Levi who used to be a tax collector, Bartimeaus who used to be blind, Lazarus who used to be dead. In a real sense all of us who follow Jesus as Savior and Lord are USED-T0-BE’s because when God looks at us, He sees not just our past but our future potential. The old saying is true….Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. And when God looks at us, He sees what our future will be like if we accept His offer of forgiveness.
Well, Peter had a great future. He served as the oral source for the first gospel written, that of John Mark. In fact most scholars believe that Mark’s gospel is nothing other than the preaching material of Peter. Peter was chosen to preach at Pentecost and 3,000 turned to faith in Christ. He became the leader of the infant church and led them through the difficult process of selecting a replacement for Judas Iscariot. Peter wrote the two epistles in the New Testament that bare his name. It is the unanimous tradition of the early church that Peter went to Rome, probably about A.D. 61 and that he was martyred there. He was crucified as Jesus predicted in John’s gospel. (John 21:18-19 ) But Peter requested that he be nailed to the cross upside down saying he was not worthy to die in the same way Jesus had died.
Now, I hope that God has spoken to you in some way as we have looked at the lives of these two FIRST disciples. I pray that our study has challenged you in your own discipleship and made you want to be a better follower of Christ. Perhaps you have seen the need to be a vital part of some ministry with no public acclaim involved. We have several openings in that area! God’s Holy Spirit may have convicted you of your need to recommit yourself to personal evangelism or of your need to learn, as Peter did, to use your mouth in a more Godly way. Maybe God has used our study to give you a mental image not of how you are but how your life could be if you follow Him as Peter did. You yearn for meaning in life…for the feeling that you are a part of something important and fulfilling, something that makes a difference in this world. Well, the only way to meet that need is to claim Jesus as Savior and to follow wherever He leads and this morning God invites you to do just that. If you are not a disciple of Jesus Christ, then I urge you to pray and ask Jesus to forgive your sin and from this point forward commit to make Him your Lord. Any decision you have to make…we encourage you to do so by walking an aisle and sharing it with me or Steve now, as we stand and sing.