A Plain Man Made Powerful!
Reading John Ch. 1v35-42.
 
 

Introduction:
I don’t want to hurt feelings today, but most of us would be thought of as ordinary people. By that I mean, most of us have never been or never will be listed in the Bluebook of society or Whose Who. Most of us are not even listed in whose Not. There are few of us, if any, which will ever be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize among us. And that’s not to hurt anyone’s feelings it’s simply being factual. Most of us were not born with a silver spoon in our mouth. Most are not from the aristocracy. Most of us would be like the fellow who said, “I wasn’t born in a log cabin like some of the great men of our country, but I want you to know that just as soon as my family could afford one, we bought it and moved in!”
Most of us are just plain, old, downright, everyday ordinary people. But then, most everybody else is ordinary. Now if that is discouraging listen to what John A Hutton said:
“Most of Christ’s followers must remain unknown to fame. They must live a simple life, a thing of routine. Few take notice of us. Thus we live day by day, not idly or unprofitably, indeed, but in a small place, until the end comes. Such is the life and lot of the majority.” End quote!
But yet many plain people have lived a life that was powerful. Before us is one such man. His name is Andrew. The description that is most often given to Andrew by writers is that of a plain man. Andrew never wrote a book like his fellow workers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We never read of him preaching a sermon like his brother Peter. He was never in the inner circle like Peter, James, and John. He is only mentioned 8 times in the Bible.
He was just a plain man, but a plain man who did powerful things. Andrew was a lot like most of us. But I want to confess to you, that if I can be like Andrew, then I am perfectly content to be plain. Let’s notice this plain man and the powerful things he did.
Its interesting that Jonah’s sulking disappointment came from a failure of imagination, a failure of heart. He had no idea what God was doing, he had no idea of the largeness of God’s love and mercy and salvation. He had reduced his vocation to his own performance, he was in the right place, doing the right thing, but he interpreted everything through his Jonah ideas, his Jonah desires.
But not Andrew, he seemed to see things through different eyes!
1. Andrews Childlike Find!
Notice John 1:40-41, “One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.”
Andrew said, “We have found the Messiah.”
He had made a glorious discovery in his life. It was a life-changing discovery. Notice more carefully this glorious discovery.
A. Andrew Is A Man With A Hungry Heart.
Notice John 1:35-38, “Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?”
Jesus had made Himself known, and John had introduced Him as the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Andrew and another followed Jesus. Jesus asked them the question, “What seek ye?” The word “seek” speaks of a quest for something that is hidden or lost. There was something missing in Andrew’s heart. There was an emptiness there, a hunger that had not been satisfied. The fact that Jesus asked him what he was seeking indicates that Andrew was searching and on a quest to find that which was missing in his life.
Psychiatrists tell us, that there are four things people are basically searching for in life: They are trying to discover how to be useful, they are trying to discover how to get rid of guilt, they are trying to discover how to love, and they are searching for a feeling of security. The bottom line to these four things is, there is something missing in life and the great search of life is to find the answer to this vacuum.

 
   
  A few years ago, on Valentine’s day, a couple was enjoying a romantic drive along a wooded section near Belle Chasse, Louisiana. Something white, shimmering in the trees, caught their eyes. Their investigation led them to a dead teenager hanging from a limb, a white bed-sheet knotted tightly around his neck A farewell note was near the trunk of the tree. It was addressed simply, “Mom and Dad.” The note read: “I never did develop into a real person and I cannot tolerate the false and empty existence I have created. What frustrated me most in the last year was that I had built no ties to family or friends. There was nothing of lasting worth and value. I led a detached existence... I am a bomb of frustration and should never marry or have children. It is safest to defuse the bomb harmlessly now . . . simply cremate me as John Doe.”
Authorities circulated the youth’s description and fingerprints to police across the country. He was later buried, unidentified and unclaimed.
I read that story and thought of the emptiness and lack of fulfilment that echoed from his actions and note. Yet, there are multiplied hundreds that are just as empty and unfulfilled. There was something missing in Andrew’s life. There was something that he had not found and something he was searching for in life. Andrew was a man with a hungry heart! Listen, Listen, let me tell you Jesus can satisfy your hunger in life whatever it may be!
B. Andrew Is A Man With A Happy Heart.
Andrew responded to Jesus’ question in verse 38 by saying, “Rabbi (Master) where dwellest Thou?” It was as though Andrew was saying, “Jesus, I would like to sit down and talk to you about it.” Jesus said in verse 39,
“Come and see.” It is literally, “Come and you shall see.” Andrew was saying, “I’m missing something.” Jesus was saying, “Come, and I’ll tell you what it is.”
Notice John 1:39, “He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour.”
Andrew and another disciple (probably John) followed and spent the day with Jesus. There is an interesting note made by John: “for it was about the tenth hour” (4:00 p.m.). It was like John was saying, “About 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon, something happened!” What happened? The same thing that happened to me around 8-30pm on the 8th of September 1957.
Notice John 1:41, “He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.”
Notice the word “found.” The word means to make a marvellous discovery. I can see Andrew running down to the boat dock shouting, Peter, Peter, I have found it. I have got it.” What had he found? He had found the Messiah and in finding the Messiah he found what he had been searching for in life. The greatest day and hour of our life is when we met Jesus! Oh, that we could maintain the wonder of those early days of salvation.
2. Andrews Challenging Faith!
Notice John 1:40, “One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.” Also John 6:8, “One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him.” Did you notice how Andrew is addressed? In both John 1:40 & 6:8, he is called, “Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.” With only a few exceptions, he is called, “Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.” He always lived in the shadow of his brother Peter. “Hey, your Peter’s brother.”
I have not always been grateful that I was the middle child of a family of five. My sister who was older than me was always the student and a model in behaviour. Being the middle child, I had to go through school hearing a teacher say, “Oh you are Jeans’ brother. She was such a good student. She never talked in class, always had her homework. We never had any problems with your sister. Etc.”
Poor old Andrew. He could never get out from under his brother’s shadow. He was always Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. But, that was never a problem to Andrew. In fact, it demonstrates a real faith in the life of this young man and illustrates some wonderful lessons. He was prepared to follow the Lord no matter what. He did not become jealous of Simon Peter, he simply did what he could do for the Lord and do it well to the glory of God.
   
  A. Andrew Understood His Gift.
Andrew was well aware that he could not preach like his brother Peter. He knew that he was not a leader like Peter. He knew that he could not get up in front of large crowds like Peter and hold them spell-bound. He knew that he was not a writer like the others. Andrew had come to understand what his gifts and abilities were. He knew what he could do and what he could not do.
We read in Romans 12:3, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”
Paul is telling us that God has given each believer different gifts and abilities. Not everyone can preach and not everyone is to preach. Not everyone can sing and not everyone is to sing. Not everyone can get up in front of a class and teach, and not everyone is to get up in front of a class and teach. Happy is the person who accepts what they can do and does not worry about what they can’t do.
There have been times when I listened to some preacher and I felt so inferior. I thought, “Man, if I could use words the way he does,” or “I wish I had a memory like he does,” or “I wish I could get up like he does and it just flow out.” But I have realised that I am what God made me and I have all that God wanted me to have.
“It is not a question of our equipment, but of our poverty; not what we bring with us, but what he puts in us; not our natural virtues, our strength of character, our knowledge, our experience; all that is of no avail. God can do nothing with people who think they will be of use to him.
Oswald Chambers.
”It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts.” Corrie ten Boom.
B. Andrew Used His Gift:
Andrew not only understood his gift, but he used his gift. He didn’t have some of the gifts his brother Peter had, but he gave to God what he had and used what gift he had for the glory of God. When we get to heaven, God is not going to judge us based on what we could not do, but what we did do and what we could do.
I think about a Sunday school teacher that asked her class to bring an object to illustrate a spiritual truth. One little boy brought a loaf of bread. The teacher said, “I know what that represents. Jesus is the Bread of Life.” Another brought a rose (Rose of Sharon). Another brought a crown (King of Kings). Then there was the little fellow that brought a Bantam hen egg. The teacher said, “Johnny, I can’t figure this one out. What does this represent?” The little boy said, “She hath done what she could.”
There are some here that have never got involved because you can’t sing like so and so, teach like so and so, pray like so and so. God is not interested if you can sing, teach, pray, like so and so. He is interested in you doing what you can do.
3. Andrews Committed Following!
There were a lot of things that Andrew couldn’t do, but there was one thing he could do and he dedicated his life to doing the one thing he could do. Andrew couldn’t preach before thousands like Peter at Pentecost but he could tell people one on one about Jesus. He couldn’t write a book like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but he could tell others about Jesus.
Notice Mark 1:16-17, “Now as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.”
That day Andrew found what he could do. He could be a fisher of men. The rest of his life was dedicated to winning men to Christ. One of the interesting features of Andrews’s life is that he was always bringing someone to Jesus. Every time you turn around, he is bringing somebody to Jesus.
A. Andrew Brings The Family To Jesus:
Notice again John 1:4142, “He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.”
The first thing he did after getting saved was to bring his brother Peter to Jesus. He led one of his family to Christ.
   
  There are some of you that have family members that are unsaved. The great tragedy is that you have never one time witnessed to them about being saved. You may not be able to preach and 3000 get saved like Peter, but you can witness to your family. The family is often times the hardest people to witness to, but often times it is a family member that will reach them.
Christ calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in his name. He calls them to forsake the world; we assure them that if they but accept Jesus the world is their oyster. He calls them to suffer; we call them to enjoy all the bourgeois comfort modern civilisation affords. He calls them to self-abnegation and death; we call them to spread themselves like Green Bay trees or perchance even to become stars in a pitiful fifth-rate religious zodiac. He calls them to holiness; we call them to a cheap and tawdry happiness that would have been rejected with scorn by the least of the Stoic philosophers. A. W. Tozer.
C. Andrew Brings The Fragile To Jesus:
Notice John 6:8-9, “One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?”
We not only see him bringing a brother to Jesus, we also see him bringing a fragile boy to Jesus. He brought family to Christ and a fragile boy to Christ.
I hear people all the time making light of the fact that children got saved:
“We had 3 saved Sunday morning.” “Was it children or adults.” They make it sound like it’s no big deal that children get saved.
D.L. Moody came home one night and his wife asked him how the meeting went. He said, “We had two-and-a-half converts.” His wife said, “Oh, you mean two adults and one child.” He said, “No, we had two children and one adult. The children have their whole life in front of them, and the adult’s life is half over.”
George Barna in his surveys has found that most people who accept Christ as their Saviour do so at a young age. The average age is 16. In total, six out of ten people say they made their decision to accept Christ before age 18. Only 8% of those who are fifty or older claim to have made a decision to accept Christ after their fiftieth birthday.
One day an old minister in England walked into his churchyard, and sitting on a tombstone began to weep. His officers had just notified him that that felt he was getting too old to pastor the church and should resign and let a younger man take his place. As he sat there broken hearted and discouraged he saw a boy coming down the street. He was fond of children and called to the boy and asked him to come and sit down beside him. The young fellow sat down beside him on the tombstone. The old preacher forgot about his own sorrow and told the young fellow about Christ and the wonderful story of the gospel and led the little fellow to Christ. The old preacher went back to his manse and to his sorrow, and it was not long after that he was called to his eternal reward. No doubt on the other side, he looked down and watched that little boy grow to become a teacher, shoe cobbler, and lay preacher. No doubt he watched as he fashioned a leather globe and before his students, as he pointed out distant lands, would break down and weep. No doubt he from the balconies of heaven watched that little boy he led to Jesus sitting on tombstone, one day leave as a missionary to India. That little boy he led to Jesus was William Carey.
C. Andrew Brings The Famous To Jesus.
Notice John 12:20-22, “And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast: The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus.”
The Greeks were the philosophers and scholars of his day. They were seeking Jesus, and it was Andrew that was involved in bringing them to Jesus.
There is a world out there that is saying, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” There are Andrews all over this building. You can’t preach, teach, or sing, but you can lead people to Jesus. Christianity since it’s early beginnings has circled nearly the entire globe. The name of Jesus had been heard around the world. But do you know how it spread? The slave told it to his fellow slave. The soldier told his comrade, the merchant told the merchant, the sailor told the sailor, the slave told his master, the master told his slave, the maid told her mistress, the mistress told her maid, children told their parents, parents told their children. It spread through people like Andrew. Plain people who became powerful. They told others what they had found. Andrew brought Peter; Peter brought others, and so on and so on.
               
  Pastor Rittenhouse and his family were on vacation travelling down the highway when they saw a suitcase fly off the top of a car going the opposite direction. They stopped to pick it up, but the driver of the other car never stopped. The only clue to the driver’s identity was a twenty-dollar gold piece inscribed: “Given to Otis Sampson at his retirement by Portland Cement Company.” After extensive correspondence, Otis Sampson was located and contacted. He wrote a letter telling them to discard the suitcase and all its contents, and send only the gold piece. Mr. Sampson used the phrase “my most precious possession,” several times to describe the gold piece. Pastor Rittenhouse sent the gold piece, and wrote a cover letter telling Otis Sampson about his most prized possession, Jesus Christ. A year later, the pastor received a Christmas package. In it was the twenty-dollar gold piece. Mr. Sampson wrote, “You will be happy to know we have become active members of a church. We want you to have this gold piece. I am seventy-four; my wife is seventy-two. You were the first one to tell us about Jesus. Now He is our most prized possession.” James S. Hewett.
There is nothing greater one can do or be than to be a plain Andrew and do the most wonderful thing; winning souls to Christ.