It's been a few weeks, but I'm back with this little series. Probably about 5 or six more "parts" to it.Peter is a great character of the Bible. He reminds us all that God doesn't look at us for who we are, but who he will become...
But one of my heroes of the Bible is the often overlooked one who connected Jesus and Peter... Peter's brother Andrew. I love this little passage in John 1:
40Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). 42And he brought him to Jesus.And he brought him to Jesus. Love it! Andrew was not a headliner... at best he's supporting cast. Peter was a headliner! Peter was the one who did the first Evangelistic Crusade of the New Covenant.
Here's what I'm wondering, without Andrew, would Peter be a part of the story??? I don't know the answer to that for sure. Here's what I do know, both were a part of something significant.
What if my most significant role in life were to be the the one who took that one child, student or adult who is going to change the world, and bring him/her to Jesus? That's the Andrew Factor in the search for significance. Below is the story of Edward Kimball, a perfect example of the Andrew Factor!
Edward Kimball was concerned about one of his young Sunday school students who worked at a shoe store in town. One day Kimball visited him at the store, found the student in the back stocking shoes, and led him to Christ then and there. Dwight L. Moody eventually left the shoe store to become one of the greatest preachers and evangelists of all time.
Moody, whose international speaking took him to the British Isles, preached in a little chapel pastored by a young man with the imposing name of Frederic Brotherton Meyer. In his sermon Moody told an emotionally charged story about a Sunday school teacher he had known in Chicago who personally went to every student in his class and led every one of them to Christ.
That message changed Pastor Meyer’s entire ministry, inspiring him to become an evangelist like Moody. Over the years Meyer came to America several times to preach. Once in Northfield, Massachusetts, a confused young preacher sitting in the back row heard Meyer say, “If you are not willing to give up everything for Christ, are you willing to be made willing?” That remark led J. Wilbur Chapman to respond to the call of God on his life.
Chapman went on to become one of the most effective evangelists of his time. A volunteer by the name Billy Sunday helped set up his crusades and learned how to preach by watching Chapman. Sunday eventually took over Chapman’s ministry, becoming one of the most dynamic evangelists of the 20th century. In the great arenas of the nation, Billy Sunday’s preaching turned thousands of people to Christ.
Inspired by a 1924 Billy Sunday crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina, a committee of Christians there dedicated themselves to reaching that city for Christ. The committee invited the evangelist Mordecai Ham to hold a series of evangelistic meetings in 1932. A lanky 16-year-old sat in the huge crowd one evening, spellbound by the message of the white-haired preacher, who seemed to be shouting and waving his lone finger at him. Night after night the teenager attended and finally went forward to give his life to Christ.
The teenager’s name? Billy Graham—the man who has undoubtedly communicated the gospel of Jesus Christ to more people than any other man in history.
