Twelve Ordinary Men: Lesson 3

Overview

Andrew: The Quiet Apostle Who Brought People to Jesus

Among the Twelve, Andrew often stands in the shadow of his more prominent brother, Simon Peter. He belonged to the inner circle of fishermen-apostles—Peter, Andrew, James, and John—but he is conspicuously absent from several pivotal moments where the other three accompany Jesus: the raising of Jairus's daughter, the Transfiguration, and the agony in Gethsemane. Yet Andrew is not a footnote. He appears at the healing of Peter's mother-in-law in his own home Mark 1:29 and joins Peter, James, and John in privately questioning Jesus on the Mount of Olives about the destruction of the temple Mark 13:1-4. Scripture never attaches dishonor to Andrew when he is named individually—a quiet testimony to his faithfulness.

A Ministry of Introductions

Andrew's signature pattern is simple: he brings people to Jesus. Originally a disciple of John the Baptist, Andrew followed Jesus the moment John pointed Him out as the Lamb of God—and the very first thing Andrew did was find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" John 1:35-42. Every fruit of Peter's later ministry—including the three thousand converted at Pentecost—traces back to that one personal introduction. Andrew also served as the bridge for Greek seekers at the Passover, who approached Philip wanting to see Jesus; Philip turned to Andrew, and together they brought them to the Lord John 12:20-23. At the feeding of the five thousand, while others calculated what was impossible, Andrew brought forward a boy with five loaves and two fish—not knowing what Jesus would do, but trusting that something could be made of so little John 6:1-13.

Faithful in the Background

Where Peter was boisterous and front-and-center, Andrew labored in obscurity. He didn't need the spotlight; he needed people to meet Jesus. Church tradition holds that Andrew carried the gospel north toward Scythia and was eventually crucified in Achaea—lashed (not nailed) to the cross to prolong his suffering after he refused to recant his witness to the governor's wife. Tradition says he hung there nearly two days, still calling passersby to Christ. To the very end, his ministry remained the same: introducing one more person to Jesus.

Pastoral Application

Not every believer is called to a Pentecost-sized platform, and our culture's obsession with visibility can tempt us to measure faithfulness by audience size. Andrew reminds us that quiet, personal evangelism is neither lesser nor wasted. We don't save anyone—God alone saves—but He uses ordinary believers to make introductions, one person at a time, in homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces. All of us carry a bit of Peter and a bit of Andrew in our witness. The question is not whether we serve in the spotlight or behind the scenes, but whether our service points away from ourselves and toward Christ. As Andrew's life shows: it's not about us. It's always about Jesus.

Transcript

Good morning. 1s

All right, so we are going to be jumping back into the 12 3s

ordinary men, though today we will be looking at one 9s

ordinary man, Andrew, but before we do, let us open 14s

in prayer. 20s

Heavenly Lord, thank you so much. 21s

Thank you for your gracious word, your word of salvation, 24s

your word of forgiveness. 27s

We thank you so much for the men that you called your 29s

apostles to share this good news of salvation through you. 33s

We ask that as we study this morning that you would open 40s

our minds and our hearts to you and to your good news and 43s

that we would learn by Andrew's example how we too can be 48s

evangelists and missionaries for you in our everyday life. 53s

Lord, we thank you and we praise you asking all of this in 58s

Jesus' name, Amen. 61s

Okay, so quick review as we have talked about for a couple 64s

of weeks, but because we haven't met for a couple of weeks due 72s

to Christmas and New Year's, yay, not yay that we haven't met 75s

but yay, Christmas and New Year's. 80s

The apostles, those were 12 ordinary men that Jesus had called 82s

to serve in ministry with him, that he had chosen to teach them 88s

to carry on his ministry, to really preach the gospel, 95s

to preach salvation through Christ and Christ alone. 101s

And it is because of the time that they spent with Christ and 104s

the teaching that he did with them and the commission, 109s

the call that he gave them to go, that is why we are here today 112s

because of Christ's call to them and upon their lives to go and 119s

share the good news and because of that it has gone and 125s

continued to grow and more and more believers are added and 129s

continued to be added to the church even today. 134s

And so we're taking a step back and we're looking at these 12 137s

ordinary guys and something that I like to point out every time 141s

is that these men, though we think of the apostles as these great 147s

giants amongst men, they were ordinary people. 152s

And God chose these humble, ordinary, non-specicular men for service 157s

because it is very clear that all that is done by any of these men. 165s

All the healing, the preaching, everything is by the strength 173s

and the power of God and all the glory goes to God and God alone. 177s

So last time we met, I put up this chart for you where we see in, 185s

because the apostles are named in the three synoptic gospels and in the book of 191s

Acts and they get lumped together in these three groups of four. 196s

We have Peter, Andrew, James, and John, which are two groups of brothers, 202s

all fishermen together. 206s

We have Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew, and then James, 208s

Stadia, Simon, and Judas. Judas, Viscarious. 211s

So we've studied about Peter, the last time that we met, 214s

we dug in on Peter, Simon, Peter, and that he was kind of the head 222s

apostle. He was in a leadership role even amongst the leaders of the apostles or 229s

of the church. 236s

So now today we are going to turn to Andrew. 238s

And I thought we would do Andrew and James, or Andrew, James and John, 243s

but the more I read about Andrew, the more I just thought, well, 248s

we're just going to spend some time with Andrew for a little bit here. 251s

So I'm going to go ahead and turn back to our not-to-scale map, 254s

because Andrew and Peter were brothers. 262s

They were both from Bethseda, and they both had moved, 268s

lived together in a home in Capernum, and ran a fishing business. 274s

Andrew is kind of a background sort of apostle. 280s

We don't have a lot about him when we think of the apostles, 285s

even though he's in that first kind of grouping or inner circle of the apostles 290s

with Christ, we don't often think of him first, because he's more of a background player. 295s

He's more of a background apostle. 302s

He is definitely the least known amongst those first four, 304s

Peter, Andrew, James, and John. 310s

And there are events in Jesus' ministry where we see this sort of smaller inner circle 313s

up close and personal in these major events in Jesus' ministry where Andrew is actually missing. 321s

So if you think about the leader, Gyrus, when he is, when he has come to Jesus and Jesus is on his way, 329s

it's in the book of Luke, and that's where the homerging woman touches his cloak. 335s

So when he gets to Gyrus' house, and he goes up to the daughter who has died, 343s

he brings Peter, James, and John. 351s

Andrew is missing, at least in the telling of that. 356s

So Andrew is not there. 360s

On the mountain, when Jesus is transfigured, he has three apostles with him. 361s

He has Peter, James, and John. 367s

But Andrew is not there. 370s

When he's praying, before he is betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, 373s

he's got three apostles with him who he's asked to stay awake and pray, 378s

and it's Peter, James, and John. 383s

But Andrew is not there. 386s

However, we do see Andrew present in this sort of smaller inner circle with the apostles. 388s

We see him. 396s

If we turn to the Gospel of Mark, the first chapter, we're going to go to Mark 29. 397s

So this is where Jesus has, Mark 1, 29. 409s

Jesus has begun ministry. 414s

His fame is starting to spread. 419s

The verse before says that his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. 422s

So then in verse 29, it says, as soon as they left the synagogue, 429s

they entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. 433s

So we have that inner circle. 437s

Those three, Peter, James, and John, and Andrew is there. 440s

But it's also Andrew's home. 445s

He and Peter live in the same home. 448s

And so he is witness, and he is present when Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law. 450s

So he is having that intimate time with Christ, whatever Christ is teaching or talking with them at that moment. 458s

And Andrew is there. 467s

If we turn over to chapter 13, but keep your hand here, because we're going to come back to this in a moment. 470s

In chapter 13, we're going to begin in verse 1, where it says, as he came out of the temple, one of his, that's Jesus. 476s

As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, look, teacher, what large stones and what large buildings. 486s

Then Jesus asked him, do you see these great buildings? 493s

Not one stone will be left here upon another. 498s

All will be thrown down. 501s

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, tell us, when will this be? 503s

And what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished? 513s

So he's the four of those apostles and Jesus, they're sitting together privately. 517s

They're having that private conversation, and they're privately asking Jesus to explain this to them. 525s

What does he mean, these stones? 533s

How will we know that this is going to happen? 535s

So Andrew, we do know that he is part of this inner circle within the apostles, but he's not always present at all of these big events in Christ's ministry. 537s

But that does not take away from who Andrew is. 558s

So as we studied, Peter is boisterous. 563s

He's big. He lives big. He lives loud. 569s

And we kind of sit back and admire that and are in awe of that, how aggressive and passionate he is in his faith. 575s

But Andrew's not. 588s

And it doesn't mean that Andrew is not passionate about his faith, and that he is not fervent in his faith of the Lord. 591s

He is not the boisterous brother, which is probably good for Peter and Andrew's parents because that would be a lot to deal with. 598s

But Andrew is very key in ministry, even with Peter. 608s

Let's go to John, chapter one, and you know I had you marking Mark, but I think we're good. 616s

We can pass from there. 628s

So you don't need to keep your finger at Mark one. 629s

Let's go to John one instead. 632s

John the first chapter. 636s

And we're going to verse 35. 640s

Okay, so this says it begins with the next day, John. 647s

The John they're talking about are the John that John is writing about here is John the Baptist. 650s

And we'll come back to this in a moment. 655s

But the next day, John again was standing with two of his disciples. 657s

And as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, look, here is the Lamb of God. 661s

The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 668s

When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, what are you looking for? 673s

They said to him, rabbi, which translated means teacher, where are you staying? 679s

He said to them, come and see. 685s

They came and saw where he was staying and they remained with him that day. 686s

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. 691s

One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 694s

He first found his brother, Simon, and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which is translated anointed. 700s

He brought Simon to Jesus who looked at him and said, you are Simon, son of John, you are to be called Seafis. 708s

Which is translated Peter. 716s

Andrew is very, very key in Jesus' ministry, very, very key in Peter's ministry, because Andrew is the one to introduce Simon Peter to Jesus. 720s

Now, if we back up to that first part where it says the next day John again was with his disciples, 747s

so two of his disciples, one of them is John the gospel writer, or can be assumed to be John the gospel writer, 754s

because he gives this eyewitness account of this story. 761s

The other one he tells us was Andrew. 767s

Now, John the Baptist, so John and Andrew were disciples of John the Baptist. 772s

Remember, he had disciples who would follow him, who would learn from him, but John was very clear with all of his disciples that he is not or was not the Messiah. 778s

The Messiah was to come that he is the one who was prophesied about, who was preparing the way for the Messiah. 788s

So John was never trying to seek his own glory, John was never trying to confuse the matter at all. 797s

He was very clear with all of his disciples that he was not the Messiah. 804s

And so he's sitting there with two of his disciples, and they see Jesus walk by, and he points him out and says, 811s

see there, that is the Lamb of God, that is the Messiah. 820s

And so those two disciples did what? They went. They followed Jesus. 825s

Do you think John was upset about this? No, no, of course not, because he was very clear with the Messiah. 834s

He was not the Messiah, and if he was to prepare the way for the Lamb of God, then of course he would want for those to follow the Lamb of God to be disciples of Christ. 843s

Remember, he said that he needs to go back, like he needs to become less and less known, while Jesus needs to become more known. 858s

So Andrew meets Jesus, speaks with Jesus, and then what does Andrew immediately do? 867s

It says, first thing he does is go and get his brother. 875s

I met the Messiah. I met the Messiah. 880s

When we meet Jesus, when we meet Jesus, are we so excited that we have got to get all of our relatives, all of our friends, and we need to make sure that we introduce them to Jesus? 885s

I mean, there is real individual evangelism happening here. Let me introduce you to Jesus. That's the first thing that he does. 901s

And we see that though Andrew in Scripture, he is very quiet. He is a very effective evangelist. He has a very effective evangelistic ministry, and he has a very certain trust in Jesus and in Jesus power. 914s

Andrew did not need to be the center of attention. Peter was a center of attention sort of person. Peter was very good about turning the glory to God, about making sure that though people were crowding around him, he would say, no no no no God, got got, got, got. 938s

He didn't seek the glory for himself, but he was a center of attention sort of apostle. Andrew on the other hand was not. He was a background apostle. 961s

He was quietly going about his evangelism, quietly going about making sure that people were meeting Jesus. And when he spoke, people listened to him. 970s

It was good to listen to him. John MacArthur pointed out that Scripture never attaches dishonor to Andrew's actions when he is mentioned by name. 984s

Think of how many times we read of when Simon Peter makes an oopsie, really blows it. Peter, I mean Jesus rebukes him. Peter denies Jesus. And we see a lot of Peter's flaws, front and center. 997s

And Andrew is never dishonored in Scripture. He was not perfect. And whenever the disciples are lumped together in wrongdoing or in unfaithfulness, he is definitely in there. 1016s

He is part of the apostles. He is part of Christ's disciples. But when he is singled out, it is done so with honor showing the wisdom that Andrew and the faith that Andrew has, he really labored in obscurity. 1034s

And he didn't need or seek after the limelight. He was very, very intent on making sure that people knew Jesus, which is exactly what we witnessed in what we had read in the Gospel of John. 1055s

The first thing he did was make sure that his brother knew Jesus. So all of the fruit of Peter's witness, all of that fruit can be brought right back to that introduction that Andrew made between Peter and Christ. 1073s

I want to highlight here the importance of this individual missionary evangelism, this individual aspect that we are all called to. 1093s

Not all of us are called to be a Billy Graham sort of limelight preacher. Not all of us are called to be a mother Teresa limelight servant. 1111s

But we all are called as God's children. And as such, we are all called as his missionaries. And as such, we all have people in our lives that we can introduce to Jesus. 1134s

We don't, we don't save anyone. We introduce people to Jesus. We are not marking and tallying for ourselves. How many people we saved because we save zero. 1161s

God alone saves. But he uses us in our daily lives, in our individual lives, as quiet missionaries, background missionaries to introduce people one by one to Jesus. 1183s

And there may be times where we are called to introduce more than one person at a time to Jesus. But just because we don't have a spotlight does not mean that we aren't to be preaching, that we aren't to be telling people that Jesus loves them, that Jesus saves them from their sin. 1208s

So I want to share that. And I think it's very important for us because we live in a world and a society where YouTube stars, I think the latest thing is TikTok. Maybe I'm asking the wrong group. 1232s

I need to go down the hall to the youth room. Snapchat, I don't know. But you know, that's not the life that we're necessarily called to. And that's okay. 1248s

We don't have to be a YouTube star to have effective evangelism. We don't have to seek after fame because then we're not seeking after what we have been called to find. 1266s

And I don't think that there's any less importance in Andrew and the ministry that Andrew had. There's no less importance in that than what Peter did. 1284s

And the ministry that Peter had. Peter preached on that first day of Pentecost and 3000 believers were added in that one day, 3000 from one sermon. 1299s

And Drew took the time to introduce one person to Jesus. And that affected many, many more. 1315s

So none of our evangelism is wasted. None of our evangelism is not worth it. Andrew introduced one at a time to meet Jesus. 1328s

Let's go to John chapter 12, starting in verse 20. So we see, we see or have seen that Andrew is that home field missionary, right? The first person he introduced to Jesus was his brother. 1342s

Well then in verse 20, we're going to see how, or beginning with verse 20, we're going to see how Andrew is the first foreign missionary. So in John 12, verse 20. 1361s

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip who was from Bethesda in Galilee and said to him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. 1374s

Philip went and told Andrew, then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 1387s

Very truly, I tell you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Okay. So what happened here? 1396s

These foreigners, the Greeks came looking for Jesus. They went to Philip. Philip said, I'm going to take you to Andrew. 1411s

And what did Andrew do? Andrew took Philip and the Greeks. Andrew and Philip together took those foreigners to meet Jesus. So Andrew was the first foreign missionary. 1422s

But again, we just see a couple of people, a couple of those Greeks that Andrew is up close and personal and saying, let's go meet Jesus. This is the important thing. I need you to meet Jesus. 1434s

And so they go. And this shows also the trustworthiness of Andrew and the trustworthiness of his leadership. Those Greeks went to find Philip. And Philip said we need to find Andrew first. 1445s

So it shows that Andrew's ministry was, he had a very, very strong leadership. The other apostles then trusted him, trusted his wisdom, trusted his thoughtfulness, trusted his decision making and who shouldn't or who couldn't because his decision is always to, let's go talk to Jesus. 1467s

That's good. That's good wise counsel. Go talk to Jesus. And Andrew trusted Jesus. Andrew trusted Jesus. So the apostles, Philip, we see trusting Andrew. But we see that Andrew turned to Jesus first and Andrew trusted Jesus. 1492s

If we go over to the sixth chapter of John, so John 6, just right beginning at verse 1, we have a nice, nice story that you're probably familiar with. But let's, let's read it. 1514s

So chapter 6 of the gospel of John verse 1, after this, Jesus went to the other side of the sea of Galilee, also called the sea of Tiberius. A large crowd kept following him because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 1533s

Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, where are we to buy bread for these people to eat? He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 1552s

Philip answered him, six months wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little. Okay, so the apostles are scrambling. They're saying, what do you mean? What are we to do? You know, Philip is saying there is not enough money that we can pull together to even just meet a small need here. 1569s

We can't do anything and he's he's kind of out of his mind with it. One of the disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people? Jesus said, make the people sit down. 1594s

Now there was a great deal of grass in the place, so they sat down about 5,000 in all. Then Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish as much as they wanted. 1612s

When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, gather up the fragments, left over so that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled 12 baskets. 1628s

So while Philip is trying to figure out how can we even get a small enough or a big enough amount of money to feed just a small amount to these people, Andrew, he doesn't know what Jesus is going to do. He even says, I don't know what this, I don't know what can be made of this. 1644s

But he's still new to go to Jesus and he says, okay, so here's this kid. He's got these loaves and these fish. It's not a lot. Here you go, Jesus. He trusted that Jesus would do something. He didn't know what. He couldn't have imagined what Jesus would do. 1663s

But he knew that there was something there. He trusted, he trusted in the power of Christ. So now we're going to talk about the glory. The glory, the glory, the glory. Andrew is a really beautiful example of the humble servant. 1684s

As we talked about before, he was never seeking the limelight for himself. He wasn't trying to put himself in the middle of the action. I think about being a part of a production in theater. 1708s

And so much goes on in the background. If you've never been a part of a production, it's crazy. There are so many moving parts, so many things that have to be done before the show, while the show is happening. 1723s

And we don't see the stage managers. We don't see the lighting directors. We don't see the lighting technician changing the lights, but we see the person standing in the spotlight. But someone has to be pushing those buttons. 1743s

Andrew, I think of him as one of those background players, one of those essential people. And he was so humble about it. He humbly brings forth this kiddo saying, I don't know what you can do with this. 1761s

But here you go. I know I've passed by several times, even thinking about, oh, this is Andrew. The apostle Andrew is bringing forth this kid. I focus on the kid and the miracle. 1782s

The food, what Jesus did, Andrew was always serving with that humility, with that humbleness. He was never seeking his own glory that we read of, but constantly, constantly introducing people to Jesus. 1796s

As Christians, are we called to labor or to serve the Lord for our glory? No. No, of course not. We are not called to serve. The spirit does not work in us and through us so that the spirit can put us forth for accolades. 1819s

No, the spirit works in us and through us so that when someone says, I can't believe what you did. We can say, I didn't. Only by the strength and the power and the goodness of the Lord could this be done. Praise God. 1843s

As Christians, we are called to serve and all service is to glorify God and God alone. 1862s

As I was preparing for this, and I'm thinking about, or I was thinking about Peter and Andrew and how different they were. And when we do studies, you know, comparative studies of people in Scripture, especially for women, how many of us women have done studies? 1874s

And we are going to do this on Mary Martha, Mary Martha, who is a Mary who is a Martha? Well, we can do this with Peter and Andrew, Peter and Andrew, they were brothers, they were very, very different. 1891s

And one of the things that comes out in these Mary Martha studies that's very important is that we all have a little bit of Mary and Martha. And that Mary and Martha are both essential. 1905s

They are both important. Same thing. We all have a little bit of Peter, a little bit of Andrew in our witness, in our evangelism. I don't know anyone who has never stuck their foot in their mouth. Maybe it's just a personal experience, I don't know. 1917s

But I also, I, well, I would say, I don't know anyone who hasn't humbly served the Lord, but when we humbly serve, we don't even know. Right? It goes unnoticed by our fellow brothers and sisters, but it does not go unnoticed by our Lord. It does not go unnoticed. 1935s

So, is there one that's better or one that's more important? If we think about this, the ministry of Peter and all that, that was accomplished by what he did, was that worth more or more important than the ministry of Andrew? 1959s

And what we know of it, who we know he introduced to Jesus, is one better than the other, is one more important. 1984s

No, of course not. They're both vital. They're both vital in ministry. They're both vital in mission, in evangelism. And both of them served that culminated in each of us being here. 2000s

Andrew introduced Peter. Andrew was still an apostle who was sent out on a mission. The Bible doesn't record what happened to Andrew after Pentecost, after the ascension of Jesus. 2027s

But the tradition, the church tradition says that he took the gospel north. 2050s

So, we know that he was, and he had the commission to go spread the gospel, and so he would have gone and spread the gospel just as the other apostles did. 2057s

And we know that he was intent on, and very faithful to making sure that people met Jesus. 2069s

Eusibius, who is an ancient church historian, says that he went as far as Scythia, which is toward Russia. 2078s

I'm wherever Russia is here. And that he was crucified in achaea, near Athens. 2088s

And he had angered the governor so much that, because he had introduced the governor's wife to Jesus. 2100s

And the governor didn't like that. And he wanted Andrew to say, take it back. Tell her no. And he wouldn't do it. 2112s

He wouldn't do it. And so the governor ordered his execution. But he was so angry that while most people were nailed to a cross in crucifixion, he had Andrew lash to it, tied to it. 2124s

Because it would prolong his suffering. And church tradition tells or says that Andrew was hanging there for about two days. 2140s

And what he did while he hung there was to encourage passerbyes to come to Christ for salvation. 2155s

He still didn't quit trying to introduce people to Jesus. 2167s

Just incredible. Humble servant, faithful. 2180s

Reaching anyone and everyone he could, one by one, making sure that he introduced them to Jesus. 2188s

Just awesome. 2199s

So I don't quite know what all the takeaways are here from this. 2203s

But one of the takeaways that I do want to again lift up is the quietness of his ministry, the backgroundedness of his mission, and yet the vitality and the passion, and the fervor that he had for making sure that people met. 2207s

Jesus. 2238s

And I want to hold that up as an example for each of us because it's not about Andrew. It's about Jesus. And it's not about us. 2240s

It's about Jesus. And it's always about Jesus. 2251s