The First Thing He Did
HARVEY PORTER
7/8/98
The First Thing He Did
John's Gospel tells of John the Baptist saying as he saw Jesus passing,
Look, the Lamb of God! Immediately two of them followed Jesus. In fact, they spent the day with Him. John then recorded,
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). John 1.35-41 NIV
Jesus did not say,
Go find your brother and bring him to me. The initiative was Andrew’s. He was confident that he had found the Messiah and he loved his brother, Simon Peter, and wanted him to be with Jesus. This realization of what Jesus can do for the human family prompts us to bring souls to Him. If we truly believe that He is the Savior of the whole world and that everyone is lost without Him, we bring souls to Him.
Actually, we must include another ingredient here. Andrew loved his brother and when he himself found the Savior he immediately thought about his own brother. Love crosses all boundaries. It is not timid nor shy. It does the impossible. We muster courage to talk to others about their soul. The realization that all are lost without the Savior pushes us to do what we would not do under ordinary circumstances.
It is interesting that Andrew did not ask Jesus to go and talk to his brother. I wonder if Andrew thought that Peter knew him best and would trust what he had to say? I wonder if he thought that Peter might refuse to listen to an absolute stranger, even if the stranger were Jesus Himself. So, he took no chances. He did the job himself. Love works that way.
Most of the Lord’s people today never bring anyone to Christ. We console ourselves by saying,
I’m just not cut out for that... I don’t know what to say! We fear rejections, or we fear that we will offend a friend. We should, however, think of what is at stake. If Jesus is the Savior of the world, and man is lost without Him, then those who are not brought to Jesus will be eternally lost. Isn’t it worth taking the risk of losing a friend to do the greatest thing we can do for a human? It is indeed worth taking the chance upon losing a friend in view of eternity and the Lord’s charge to us all to
Go ye therefore and make disciples...
Some of the greatest soul winners I have known did not have a great education, did not stand before a Bible class and teach each Sunday, did not use good grammar, could not answer all the Bible questions someone could ask, but they loved Jesus and their lost friends and they did their best to bring the two together.
How much did Andrew know after having been with Jesus a few hours? He had been a disciple of John and now he had changed suddenly on the same day to following an unknown. Peter could have asked a lot of questions that Andrew would have had a hard time answering. Maybe he did! But one thing we know—Andrew thought first about his own brother and went immediately to bring him to Jesus. We know he loved Peter. We know he believed in Jesus, even after only a few hours with him. (Some of us have been in the church most of our lives and have never tried to bring one to Him)
The early church caught the idea of soul winning. All of Jerusalem knew about Jesus and the church. They were persecuted by the authorities, but they continued. Luke wrote,
Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
What a Savior! What a Gospel! What a challenge!
—HARVEY PORTER
