What kind of people does God use for his kingdom? What kind of people can change the world and preach the gospel so that souls are saved? We are looking at the list of the 12 apostles, the first line representatives of Christ whom he himself directly chose. It helps us understand the kind of people God uses. Can God use you? Let’s see.
We are in chapter 10. After seeing the plentiful harvest and few laborers, Jesus begins to prepare the laborers. Chapter 10 shows us how the Lord prepared his 12 disciples and made them apostles. It reveals his methods, techniques, and principles as he calls, trains, develops, and sends out his apostles. Before we see the principles of sending disciples, we first meet them. In verses 2-4, you find the names of the 12 apostles. We saw some interesting things in the list: it is divided into three groups, and each group has a leader. Their overall leader was Peter. That’s why verse 2 says, “The first, Simon, who is called Peter.” We saw how the Lord, like a sculptor, took a rough, useless stone as raw material, used the tools of truth and trials, and developed Peter into a useful leader of the first-century church.
Now, for our study this morning, we want to look at the remaining three in the first group: Andrew, James, and John. They are part of the first and most intimate group. They all came from the same town, had the same profession, were relatives, and were all in the first group called by Christ.
Usually, when we think about Peter, Andrew, James, and John, we see them as perfect, holy saints. We call them Saint Peter, Saint Andrew, and so on. We see them as people on a completely different plane than we are. We name people and cathedrals after them with great respect because they are respected individuals. We think of these four as something other than ourselves, in a different dimension of time and space, in another world. They have an aura about them. Frankly, that’s not the way it should be. They were very common men with a very uncommon calling. But they were very much like we are, and they demonstrate the kind of people God uses. See if you find yourself among them.
Andrew
He is the second in the list. He is called “Andrew, his brother,” meaning he was Peter’s brother. Andrew is always called “Simon Peter’s brother” with only one exception, I think. That’s always how he’s identified. He was always hidden and known for being Peter’s brother. His name means “manly” or “masculine.” He, too, was a native of Bethsaida, a little village in Galilee. And like his brother, he was a fisherman.
Prior to coming to follow Jesus Christ, he had been a pious, godly, and God-fearing Jew. He had also been a disciple of John the Baptist. One day, his life was changed by John the Baptist’s message. For John the Baptist saw Jesus in John 1 and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Andrew was there that day along with John, who was also a fisherman. He and John heard John the Baptist say that, and they immediately followed after Jesus. Jesus turned and said to them, “What do you seek?” They replied, “Where do You dwell?” And they went to where Jesus dwelt and spent the entire day with him. Those hours were the turning point in their spiritual history. When they came out of that day spent with the Lamb of God, it says that Andrew immediately opened his mouth and said these first words, “We have found the Messiah.” As soon as Andrew discovered the reality of Jesus Christ for himself, he announced that very phrase to his brother Peter: “We have found the Messiah.”
That was Andrew’s salvation experience, believing in Christ. Then he went back to his fishing job. In Matthew 4, he was at the sea when Jesus came along. He had already met Jesus and had already believed in Jesus as the Messiah, but after going back to his fishing, the Lord appeared to him again at the shore and called him permanently to follow him, and he would make him a “fisher of men.”
Matthew 4:18-20: “And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ They immediately left their nets and followed Him.”
Peter and Andrew lived together, it says in Mark 1:29, and no doubt they shared everything. And Andrew especially wanted to share the Messiah with him. And so, from this very beginning, he becomes a part of that intimate four. In fact, if you study through the New Testament, it’s James and Peter and John, or Peter, James, and John. They’re always the inner circle (for example, at the Transfiguration and in Gethsemane), and nobody is ever let into that inner circle, except when Andrew gets in, and it becomes Peter, James, John, and Andrew. He was in the most intimate four, but he never quite cracked that inside three. But he was greatly respected.
We don’t have much to understand Andrew’s character, but in the Gospel of John, we see Andrew three times, and all three times Andrew is doing the same thing. This is the character of Andrew that has been known, admired, and followed by all generations since then. It’s easy to characterize him. Andrew is someone who is always bringing people to Christ. As soon as he came to know Christ, the first thing he does is go and find his brother.
John 1:41: “He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah.'”
If you want to know how to characterize the life of Andrew, it’s very simple: he is the one who was always bringing people to Jesus.
The second time we see him is in the sixth chapter of John, in verses 8 and 9. A vast multitude of people are gathered. Jesus is teaching. It’s late in the day, and the crowd is hungry. There’s not enough food. Andrew brings to Jesus this time a little boy. And the little boy has five loaves and two fish. He brought that little boy to Jesus. I guess Andrew must have thought the Lord could make a whole lot out of a very little.
The third time we meet him is in John 12.
John 12:20-21: “Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.'”
These are Gentiles. What should Philip do? He is in the second group, a less intimate group. You know where he took them? He took them to Andrew. This is interesting. Why not to Peter, who is the leader?
John 12:22: “Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus.”
Why? Because I guess Philip thought that if you want to get to Jesus, all you have to do is get to Andrew. Andrew was intimate with Jesus, and Andrew was respected. Andrew takes them to Jesus. I guess Peter wouldn’t do that because these were Gentiles.
And so, whenever you see Andrew, he is involved in bringing people to Jesus. Whether it is his own dear brother Peter, or a small little boy, or Gentile Greeks, he has found the Messiah for whom his nation was waiting for thousands of years, and now his greatest life desire is to bring people to Jesus. He didn’t exclude anybody. I guess he thought Jesus wants to meet everyone that he can bring. Jesus can do something for everyone that he brings. There was no problem for any man that Jesus couldn’t solve. He is characterized as the one who brought men to Christ. He didn’t have great talents, records, or big achievements. He was a simple man, but his greatest life desire was to bring people to Christ. Many wanted to follow him in that.
In these three incidents, we can learn so much about Andrew. Let us see three things about Andrew.
- His Openness: We see Andrew’s openness, unlike many Jews in his day. He knew that they were to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He knew that primarily it was the Jew first and then the Gentile. And yet he also had the heart of our Lord to reach everyone because the Lord had originally revealed his Messiahship to a half-breed Samaritan woman. So Andrew was never choked by hyper-Judaism. He didn’t have any problem at all with bringing some Gentiles to Jesus; he brings the Greeks to Christ. So, we sense a little bit of the openness of his heart. Nobody is excluded from Christ. There wasn’t anybody outside; there wasn’t anybody that he didn’t think Jesus would not want to see. Many apostles, even Peter, were not like that. The Lord had to give him a vision in Acts to overcome his Jewish prejudice. Don’t you think this is our problem many times in gospel work? We have so many people around, but we think, “Oh, Jesus will not want to save him. He will never be saved.” And by that, we exclude everyone and wait for one perfect person who will never come. Do we have a desire to try to bring all the people we know to Christ? That is what we learn from Andrew.
- His Faith: He had a simple faith. I don’t know what he was thinking when he brought those five crackers and two fish with such a huge crowd. I don’t know what he was trying to do, running around looking for whoever had a lunch. But he must have had some kind of faith to believe that the Lord could do something with that. That is why he brought him. The disciples, like Philip, said, “You can never feed so many.” But Andrew brought this boy and said, “Lord, we have this boy: two fish and five loaves.” After all, he had seen Jesus make wine, so why couldn’t he make food?
- His Humility: Not only do we see his openness and his faith, but we see his humility. He spent his whole life being known as Simon Peter’s brother. You can believe it. And now, when he had found the Messiah, there might have been a temptation to say, “Boy, now I’m not telling Peter. This is my chance to be somebody.” But no. He runs to get Peter, knowing full well that as soon as Peter enters the group, he will run the group, because that’s Peter. And Andrew will be right back where he’s always been: as Simon Peter’s brother. But he thought more of the work to be done for God than who was in charge. He understood that the great work of the Kingdom is more important than anything in his life. He thought more of the cause of the eternal virtue of the Kingdom than he did of his personal name, pride, and petty problems. God’s kingdom should grow.
Sad to say, how many people today won’t participate if they are not given important roles? I attended a wedding where we asked the pastor of the girl to pray twice. He said, “If you don’t give me the preaching, I will not do anything. You do everything.” James and John had that problem, didn’t they? But not Andrew. I don’t find Andrew fighting about who is going to get the glory in the Kingdom.
You see, Andrew is a picture of all those who labor quietly in humble places. Not with eye service as men-pleasers but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.
Ephesians 6:6: “Do not work with eye service, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.”
They are like that beautiful flower in the forest that no one sees or appreciates, but they blossom and wither, and live and die only for God’s eye and glory. Andrew is not a pillar like Peter, James, and John; he is a humbler stone. Humble Andrew. But he was the first one called by Jesus along with John. He was the first one to do evangelism and bring his own brother, who became the leader, to Jesus. If there were no Andrew, there would be no Peter. Yet, he wasn’t in the inner three, but it didn’t seem to bother him. He was always Peter’s brother.
He’s one of those rare men who is willing to take the last place. He doesn’t care for prestige or for his name to be praised. We all say, “I don’t like praise,” but when people praise us, how much we enjoy it! And how offended we are when we are neglected or put last. Not Andrew. He is one of those rare people who wants to give support and never wants their name to be mentioned or any glory for them. He is one of those rare people who doesn’t mind being hidden as long as the work is done. I have seen people like that; I have always admired such people.
He is the kind of soul that all leaders depend on. He’s the kind of person that everyone knows is the backbone of every ministry. It is only because of such people that any ministry can grow and prosper. How many ministries have fallen and been destroyed because there were no Andrews, because of selfish, proud people who would not even hesitate to bring down the great work of God if they are not honored or recognized or appreciated for their efforts? We need men like Andrews, whose life passion is always bringing everyone to Christ—keeping everyone, from relatives to small children to even outcast Gentiles. The gospel cause of Christ is dependent on self-forgetting, serving souls who are content to occupy a small sphere and an obscure place and see the work progressing. They are satisfied fully when God’s word is preached and God is glorified, even though they are forgotten. He was free from self-seeking ambition, and yet he will sit on the throne judging the tribes of Israel.
Today, what honor this apostle has! Every major city in the world has a St. Andrew’s church. They all admire him. One of the old churches in our city is St. Andrew’s on Cubbon Road. After the resurrection, he traveled to Greece, and there he was crucified on an X-shaped cross. Some Catholic traditions say that he is the patron saint of Scotland. They even have a holiday, St. Andrew’s Day, which is November 30, which they say is when he was crucified on an X-shaped cross. They celebrate his death. Their Scottish flag is X-shaped because of this. They also have a city called St. Andrews, where there is a big church, of course, a Catholic church.
One person said, “Nothing much is said in the Bible about Andrew; only small details. He never wrote a gospel or an epistle, there is no record of him founding a church, nor was he a leading figure in the apostolic age. He was simply an intimate disciple of Jesus Christ, ever anxious that what he found and so highly prized in life—all others should know and come. He was a man of very little talent, simple-minded, and sympathetic, without either dramatic power or a heroic spirit. Yet he had that clinging confidence in Christ that brought him into that inner circle of the 12. A man with deep religious feeling and little power of expression. He was more magnetic than he was electric. He was better suited for the quiet walks of life than the stirring thoroughfares. Yes, Andrew is the apostle of the private life.”
God uses people like that. And only God can calculate their value because sometimes it is said that it is only Andrew who can reach a Peter. Only such kinds of people can reach many people with their humble and simple approach. God needs Andrews, people who quietly and obscurely bring others to Jesus. So we see Andrew, what a man.
James
There’s a third name in the first group: James the son of Zebedee. In two out of the four lists of the 12, he is next to Peter. Yet, we know very little about him. In fact, note this: he never appears alone in the gospels apart from John, his brother, in any incident. They’re inseparable in the gospels. I believe it’s important to note that he’s always mentioned before John. And it probably not only indicates that he was older but that he was the leader of this rather dynamic duo. Now, these brothers, James and John, were also fishermen, and their father was Zebedee, and Zebedee was a fairly well-to-do man because he employed hired servants in his business. He also knew the high priest, because of which John went to the courtyard when Jesus was arrested. So, they had a pretty good fishing business in the Sea of Galilee.
There isn’t much information about him, but we can get some clues. I think the best way to look at James is to consider what the Lord named him and his brother John. In Mark 3:17, Jesus gave them a name: “He called them Boanerges, which means ‘sons of thunder.'”
Mark 3:17: “James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, ‘Sons of Thunder.'”
If James is the leader, and that is indicated by the fact that he appears first, then he was a son of thunder. What does that mean? Their influence was like thunder. Wherever they went, they came suddenly, like a thunderous impact. Just think of them, when they came, they were thundering. He must have been a passionate, zealous, fervent, and aggressive guy. To give you a classic reason why, in Acts, Herod decided to vex the church, and the first guy he went after was James, and he chopped off his head. And they took Peter and put him in jail. This indicates that Peter was not as big of a problem as James. When you capture James and Peter, and kill James and let Peter live, that says something about the kind of man James must have been. A strong, zealous man. This guy made enemies fast. He was martyred soon, maybe 14 years after Christ. I mean, he was the first apostle to be martyred. They got rid of him quickly. He was a real problem, a thunderous individual. And he must have had his zeal fed daily by the one who said, “The zeal of thine house has eaten me up.” I can just see him when the Lord takes out a whip, you know, “Do it, Lord, do it!” Just zealous, you know.
James: The Brash, Zealous Man
James, one of the “Sons of Thunder,” was a man of intense passion and zeal, but he often lacked wisdom and sensitivity.
- His Character: James was quick to anger and filled with an explosive, even vengeful, fervor. When the Samaritans rejected Jesus, he wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume them, a clear lack of compassion and understanding of Jesus’s mission. He was also ambitious, as seen when his mother asked for him and his brother to have the most prominent seats in the kingdom.
- God’s Transformation: Jesus harnessed James’s fiery nature and directed his zeal for the right purpose. He bridled his tongue and taught him to seek no personal honor. James was transformed from a brash, vengeful man into a powerful and effective preacher. His intense zeal, once misdirected, became a strength that made him a significant threat to the Jewish leaders and Herod, leading to his martyrdom. He was the first apostle to be killed for his faith.
John: The Fiery Lover
Like his brother James, John was also a “Son of Thunder” but had a unique capacity for love.
- His Character: John was initially intolerant and narrow-minded. He forbade a man from casting out demons simply because the man was not part of their group. This sectarianism was a weakness that Jesus had to correct.
- God’s Transformation: God molded John’s passionate nature, turning his strong convictions into a disciplined love for the truth. John became the “apostle of love,” using the word “love” over 80 times in his writings. His love was not a weak, sentimental emotion; it was “controlled by the truth.” He could be both a loving figure who rested his head on Jesus’s chest and a firm, uncompromising defender of truth, denouncing those who twisted the Gospel.
- His Legacy: John is known as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” This was not a boast but a humble acknowledgement of God’s grace in his life. He was a man of love who had a great capacity to receive and give love. He lived a long life, and his final message to the church was a simple and profound plea: “My little children, love one another.”
God’s Use of Ordinary People
The author concludes that God can use all kinds of people, regardless of their personality or initial weaknesses. The key is not what a person is, but “what you are willing to become.”
- Peter: A dynamic and bold leader who often made mistakes.
- Andrew: A humble, quiet person who worked behind the scenes.
- James: A zealous and passionate man who was at first insensitive.
- John: A loving man who was a fierce defender of the truth.
These four men were ordinary fishermen whom Jesus transformed into extraordinary “fishers of men.” Their stories, including their martyrdoms, demonstrate their transformation from flawed individuals into powerful, unwavering witnesses for Christ. The central message is that God can take anyone’s weaknesses and turn them into strengths, making a common person into an uncommon apostle if they are available for His work.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 