When you get excited about something – I mean really excited about something – what do you do? Do you sit back, hide it, and try not to let anyone know about it? I suppose if it’s something embarrassing you might hide it. I know I didn’t let too many people know when I watched a couple of World Cup soccer matches a couple of years ago…don’t worry, I got over it. I only watch real sports now.
If you are like me, when you get excited about something you want to share it with everyone. It was a late-fall afternoon several years ago when I found myself alone at a conference in Nashville looking for a cheap lunch. It was then that God blessed me with the gift of Chick-fil-A for the first time. It was amazing, and I told everyone! I can now count at least a half dozen friends and family members that share my love of those wonderful chicken sandwiches.
There’s a guy from the Bible that models this idea perfectly. Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist until one day when he heard John make an incredibly powerful statement;
Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
The moment Andrew heard this he left John and began following Jesus. But do you know what he did first?
One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus.
Andrew was excited about Jesus and the first thing he did was to go, get his brother, and bring him to Jesus! This is something that Andrew does a lot; he brings people to Jesus.
In John 12, there is a group of Greeks who come to Jerusalem and want to see Jesus. They find their way to Philip to try to get an audience with Jesus. Apparently Philip doesn’t know what to do, so he finds Andrew. Guess what Andrew does; he takes Philip to Jesus.
My favorite Andrew story is the feeding of the five thousand. He doesn’t play a big part, but I think what he does says a lot about him. There are 5000 men who have gathered on a hillside to hear Jesus. Given that there would have been family units present, that means there’s a lot more people than that gathered on the hillside. Jesus tells his disciples to feed them. The disciples sort of freak out at this – how are we going to do that! We’re in the middle of nowhere! Where would we even get the money to buy food for all these people!
However, only Andrew brings up a possible solution.
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?’
Andrew doesn’t know what to do. He only sees one possibility: Jesus. He finds a boy with a lunch, and he brings him to Jesus. He doesn’t know what to do with the boy or the food, but he knows that Jesus can do far more than anyone else. Andrew believed in Jesus, he had faith in him, and he was excited to follow him! Because of that, over and over again, he brought people to Jesus.
Who are you bringing to Jesus? How are you doing it? By your actions do you show that you have faith in him, that you believe in him, that you are excited about him? Do you invite people to hear about him, do you talk to people about him, or do you stop yourself because you don’t know what their reaction will be or you are afraid of the consequences?
Don’t be afraid, be excited! Know that God doesn’t expect you to have all of the answers or to know exactly what is going to happen, He just wants you to point people to Him and trust that He will know what to do with them. The truth is that there are a lot of people that will have a strongly negative reaction to the message of Jesus. That’s ok. The gospel message is one that is divisive; it forces people to make a decision, to choose whom they will follow – Christ or themselves.
As followers of Christ, we are called to be faithful. So be an Andrew – bring people to Jesus. Then, sit back and see what miracles he has in store for you!
Driven 