ANDREW: A HUMBLE DISCIPLE

You may or may not have noticed, that whenever the Lord's twelve disciples are listed in the Bible, they are always listed in, what appears to be, three "groups of four" (Mt. 10:2-4; Mk. 3:16-19; Lk. 6:14-6; Acts 1:13-19).  The first "group" is led by Simon Peter, the second "group" is headed by Philip, and the third "group" is listed with James, the son of Alphaeus, as its "leader."  Apart from that, the only other consistent placement is that of Judas Iscariot, who is always identified as the one who betrayed Jesus.  Peter's "group" consisted of Peter himself, Andrew, James, and John.  Philip's "group" consisted of Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew.  Alphaeus' son James' "group" included James, Simon Zelotes, Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot. 

Today, as I was reading the daily devotion from Our Daily Bread, I noticed that when Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, He only took three of the first "group" (Peter, James, and John - Mt.26:37; Mk. 14:33).  That got me thinking about other times when Jesus ministered with just a few of His disciples, and how He rarely included Andrew.  At the raising of Jairus' dead daughter, it was Peter, James, and John, who were present (Mk. 5:37; Lk. 8:51).  And, on the mount where Jesus was transfigured before just a few of His disciples, only those three were present with the Him (Mt. 17:1; Mk. 9:2; Lk. 9:28).  The one time Andrew is mentioned as being part of "the inner circle," was when Jesus taught the four of them on the Mount of Olives, in what is known as the Olivet Discourse (Mk. 13:3).

Apparently, Andrew lived with Peter, Peter's wife, and her mother (Mk. 1:29-31).  He and Peter were both fishermen from the town of Bethsaida (Jn. 1:44).  Andrew apparently was a disciple of John the Baptist (Jn. 1:35-42).  It was when Andrew first learned that Jesus was "the Lamb of God" (Jn. 1:36), he became interested in Jesus.  His initial response was to go tell his brother about Him (Jn.1:41).  Later, Jesus called Andrew and his brother to be His disciples (Mt. 4:18-20; Mk. 1:16-18). 

On two separate occasions, Andrew was used of God to inform Jesus of something.  The first was when he told the Lord about the boy with five loaves and two fish (Jn. 6:8-9).  The other was when he accompanied Philip to tell Jesus about some Gentiles who want to speak to Jesus (Jn. 12:20-26).  He was included when the twelve and the seventy were sent out to proclaim Christ's kingdom, and he had the same miraculous abilities as the others (Mt. 10:5-42; Mk. 6:7-13; Lk. 9:1-6; Jn.10:1-24).  Other than that, very little is said about Andrew.  Since we have no other record of him, and thus, no record of him complaining about being left out, it may be safe to assume Andrew was a humble, faithful, believer in Jesus Christ.

 

Some of the disciples sought to be important; Andrew simply sought to serve!