Known for what you believe

Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them. They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come and see,” he said. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place where he was staying, and they remained with him the rest of the day. 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”. Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, “Your name is Simon, son of John—but you will be called Cephas” (which means “Peter”). The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.” Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown. Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.” “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” “Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied. John 1:38-46 People become known for different reasons. For example, from the Old Testament Noah is known as a righteous man in an evil age. David is known as the man after God’s own heart. Then in the New Testament, Peter is known as the straightforward disciple. John is known as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Judas is known as the defector. Paul is known as a courageous bringer of the good news of the gospel among the Gentiles. Then from the text, Andrew is known for bringing others to Jesus. When Andrew learned about who Jesus is, he went to his brother Peter and brought him to Jesus. It became evident later on in the gospels that after Peter became one of the disciples, he became the spokesperson for the apostles. Andrew who was instrumental in bringing Peter to Christ remained in the background. Yet there was no written account in the gospels that Andrew resented Peter’s standing among the disciples. It seemed that he was contented to bring people to Jesus and give the glory to God. When Christ fed the over five thousand people, Andrew was the one who found the boy with loaves of bread and fishes and brought him to Jesus (see John 6:8-9). It was also Andrew who brought the Greeks to Christ even when he knew that there was an animosity among the Jews and the Greeks (see John 12:20-22). There was no record in the gospels that Andrew preached a great message or performed a great miracle or wrote one of the books of the Bible, yet his contribution was noteworthy because he brought people to Jesus. All he did was to live a consistent life and when asked how, he pointed them to Jesus. Your job is not to convict people of their need of God to forgive their sin. Your responsibility is to tell people that it is worth looking unto Jesus for He alone could transform people’s lives. Your task is to live a life of testimony that invites others to “come and see” the reason why you believe in what you believe about God.

Blessings,