Jubilee Community Church
Wednesday Night

  • Session 4 – Andrew: The First-Called

    Supporting texts: Matthew 4:18–20; Mark 1:16–18; John 6:8–9; John 12:20–22; Acts 1:13
    John 1:35–42 ESV
    35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).

    Introduction

    We have spent three full sessions with Simon Peter — the bold, impulsive, sometimes glorious, sometimes stumbling leader of the Twelve. Tonight we turn the page to his quieter brother.
    Andrew never preached the sermon on the Day of Pentecost. He never walked on water. He never wrote a letter that ended up in our New Testament. In fact, if you count carefully, Andrew is mentioned by name only twelve times in the entire New Testament, and four of those appearances are simply lists of the apostles.
    Yet the early church gave him a title that no other apostle received: Protokletos — the First-Called.
    Andrew shows us something vital in a series called Ordinary Men, Extraordinary Calling. God does not only use the loud voices and the natural leaders. He also uses the steady, observant, behind-the-scenes men who are content to bring other people to Jesus and then step out of the way.
    Tonight we will look at three things:
    Who Andrew was before Jesus called him.
    How he became the first disciple and the first evangelist.
    The quiet, consistent character that marked the rest of his life.

    1. An Ordinary Fisherman with a Seeking Heart

    Andrew grew up in Bethsaida, a fishing village on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee whose name literally means “house of fishing” (John 1:44). His father’s name was John (or Jonah). He and his brother Simon worked the same nets and later shared a house in Capernaum (Mark 1:29).
    His name itself is interesting. Andreas is a thoroughly Greek name, derived from the word andreia (Strong’s G406), which means “manliness,” “courage,” or “bravery.” Most Jewish men of that era carried Hebrew or Aramaic names. The fact that this Galilean family gave their son a Greek name suggests a certain cultural openness — a willingness to live at the intersection of Jewish faith and the wider Hellenistic world. That small detail will matter later when we see Andrew’s ease in bringing Greeks to Jesus.
    Before he ever met Jesus, Andrew was already a disciple of John the Baptist. That tells us something important about his heart. Fishing was hard, physical, uncertain work. Most men in that trade stayed close to the boats. Andrew was willing to leave the nets long enough to travel south to the Jordan River because he was hungry for the voice of God. He was an ordinary working man with an extraordinary spiritual appetite.
    He was not content with religious routine. He was looking for the Messiah.

    2. The First to Follow and the First to Bring Another

    The earliest recorded call of any apostle is found in John 1:35–42.
    John the Baptist is standing with two of his disciples when Jesus walks by. John says, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples hear him and begin following Jesus. One of them is Andrew.
    They spend the rest of the afternoon with Jesus — from about four o’clock until evening. Whatever they saw and heard that day convinced Andrew completely. The very first thing he does afterward is find his own brother.
    John writes it carefully: “He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus.”
    The Greek phrase heuriskei touton prōton is deliberate. Andrew is the first to find his brother. Before Peter ever makes his famous confession in Matthew 16, Andrew has already declared Jesus to be the Messiah and has personally brought the future leader of the church to Christ.
    This becomes the pattern of Andrew’s entire recorded ministry. Every time the Gospel of John shows us Andrew doing something, he is bringing someone to Jesus:
    He brings the boy who has five barley loaves and two fish (John 6:8–9). While Philip is calculating how impossible the situation is, Andrew is looking for what is available and placing it in Jesus’ hands.
    He and Philip together bring a group of Greeks who want to see Jesus (John 12:20–22). Andrew becomes, in a real sense, the first “foreign missionary” among the Twelve — the one willing to open the door to outsiders.
    Andrew is not the star of the story. He is the connector. He is the man who keeps introducing people to Jesus and then quietly steps aside.

    3. A Steady Disciple Content to Serve in the Background

    When Jesus formally chooses the Twelve, Andrew is always listed in the first group of four. Yet he is never part of the inner circle of Peter, James, and John. He is present on the Mount of Olives when the disciples ask about the destruction of the temple and the end of the age (Mark 13:3), but the narrative focus remains on the others.
    After the resurrection and ascension, the New Testament simply names him among those waiting in the upper room (Acts 1:13). From that point forward the biblical record falls silent.
    What we know of the rest of his life comes from early church tradition. The earliest notice appears in Origen (early third century), preserved by Eusebius, who says Andrew’s missionary field was Scythia — the vast region north of the Black Sea. Later sources add Thrace, Macedonia, and finally the Roman province of Achaia in southern Greece. The most consistent early tradition places his martyrdom in the city of Patras around AD 60–70 under a proconsul named Aegeates (or Aegeas).
    According to those early accounts, Andrew was bound, not nailed, to a cross and continued preaching to the crowds for a day or more before he died. The familiar X-shaped “St. Andrew’s cross” that we see in later art is a medieval development. The oldest sources simply speak of a cross or, in one tradition, an olive tree.
    We must be careful here. Much of the later material belongs to the category of pious tradition rather than verifiable history. But the core picture that emerges is consistent with the man we meet in the Gospels: a faithful, steady witness who kept pointing people to Jesus until the very end.
    Andrew never needed the spotlight. He was content to serve in the background as long as people were being brought to Christ.

    Conclusion & Application

    Andrew never wrote a book. He never dominated a narrative. He never performed a miracle that the Gospel writers chose to highlight.
    Yet every single time the New Testament shows us Andrew in action, he is doing the same simple, powerful thing — bringing someone to Jesus.
    In a culture that celebrates platform, personality, and public gifts, Andrew stands as a quiet rebuke and a great encouragement. The extraordinary work of God often travels along the ordinary faithfulness of people who are content to point away from themselves.
    You may never be a Peter. You can be an Andrew.
    You can be the one who finds your brother. You can be the one who notices the boy with the lunch. You can be the one who is willing to bring the outsider to Jesus. You can be the steady, background disciple who keeps introducing people to the Lamb of God and then steps aside so they can meet Him for themselves.
    That is an extraordinary calling for an ordinary man.

    Next Session Preview

    In Session 5 we will look more closely at two moments that reveal Andrew’s practical faith: the feeding of the five thousand and the arrival of the Greeks. We will see what it means to trust Jesus with small resources and open doors.

      • John 1:35–42ESV

Jubilee Community Church
jubileeministries31773@gmail.com
229-224-3359
http://jccministries.org
10 members • 6 followers