Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Unsung Heroes

Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of these men who heard what John said and then followed Jesus. Andrew went to find his brother, Simon, and told him, "We have found the Messiah" (which means "Christ").
—John 1:40

We read a lot about Peter, James, and John in the Gospels, but we don't know that much about Andrew. The brother of Peter, Andrew didn't get a lot of ink in the New Testament. But what we do read about him is significant. Andrew is primarily known as the one who brought others to Jesus. In fact, when he discovered that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah of Israel, he went and found his older brother and brought him to Jesus.

I find that interesting, because Peter was a larger-than-life kind of guy. Peter was the kind of person who would enter a room and everyone would know it. He always had something to say and was a natural leader. It is very likely that Andrew spent most of his life in his brother's shadow. How easily he could have kept the knowledge of Jesus to himself and said, "I don't want Peter to get in here. He will probably try to take over the whole operation." Instead, he went and brought Peter to Jesus.

Every time we read about Andrew, in fact, he is bringing someone to Jesus. There is the little boy with the loaves and fish whom he brought to Jesus, who then multiplied those provisions to feed thousands of people. Then there were some Greek men who came searching for truth, and Andrew brought them to Jesus. You could say that Andrew is like the patron saint of unsung heroes, the kind of people who are willing to do what needs to be done while flying under the radar. They don't care if you know about them; they just want God to get the glory. And here is the thing we need to remember: If we had more Andrews, we probably would have more Simon Peters.

Copyright © 2009 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved. 
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

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