Of First Importance
Andrew was originally one of John the Baptist’s disciples.
But when John introduced him to Jesus, Andrew immediately hightailed it back to Bethsaida, the little fishing village that he called home.
He was excited beyond words, and most of us can remember that moment—the moment we realized that Jesus was real and the Bible was true.
No words—just a wow.
Forgiveness of sins.
Reconciliation to God.
Everlasting life.
Andrew’s eyes were opened; he had seen the light, as the saying goes, only in Andrew’s case, it was more literal.
There at Jesus’ baptism, “the heavens were torn open and the Spirit descended on Him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven… (Mark 1:10-11).
The details vary, but every Believer has had that kind of miraculous aha moment, after which, nothing is the same.
And for Andrew, it began with telling someone he cared about, his brother, Peter: “There’s a Savior, and you need to know Him.”
After all, Andrew has just heard John the Baptist say of Jesus: Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; and it’s because he loves Simon, he doesn’t want him to remain in his sins and be lost forever; instead, he wants him to live.
So, it’s a no-brainer. And off he goes!
That’s solid evidence, by the way, of genuine salvation: the compassionate desire to help someone else find life in Christ.
It would be strange for someone to (let’s say) learn of a cure for some fatal disease, and then not tell those who suffer from that very disease how they could find complete healing.
We may be introverted and shy by nature, nothing wrong with that; we may feel a sense of inadequacy (I think we all know how that feels), but one thing is certain: we can never not care about an unbeliever’s soul and the peril that faces them.
(Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life—1 John 5:12.)
And so if we do believe that and we do care about the unbelievers in our lives, we do something to help them out of harm’s way by pointing them to the One who can take all their sins away.
That’s a big part of why the Lord has put certain people in our lives; they need Him, and we are the means by which He can reach them.
But if the condition of someone’s soul is the last thing on our minds, I don’t think that’s helpful to the Lord, or to the unbeliever who’s perishing in our midst.
Peter is going to ultimately outshine his brother, Andrew; but honestly, if it weren’t for Andrew, maybe we’d never hear of Peter in the first place.
That’s Andrew’s contribution to the Gospel story:
Helping others find safe refuge in Jesus is always of first importance.
