Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard [this] from John and followed him.
The Gospel stops to give a name: one of the two men who left John the Baptist and went after Jesus was Andrew. The verse marks him out not by anything he had done, but by whose brother he was — and it never names the second man.
These two had been listening to John. He was the greatest preacher of his day, yet his preaching sent them away from him.
The testimony to His work now follows the declaration of who He is. So the two disciples heard John speak, and followed Jesus. But we miss the force of this unless we see who gave that testimony. The Lord Jesus Himself said that of all who are born of women, none was greater than His messenger, John the Baptist. Yet the effect of John's word is that the disciples leave him for Jesus. "Behold, the Lamb of God!" had sunk into their hearts. Now we see this blessed result: they followed Jesus.
They had heard John on earlier days and stayed where they were. Something in his word on this day reached them.
We see the effect of such a ministry in the two disciples who heard John speak. They heard John, but they followed Jesus. On the earlier days they seem to have listened to John unmoved. But on the third day his ministry flowed from a heart that was full of Christ, and it reached hearts that needed Him.
Andrew is named; his companion is not. Commentators read that silence as the writer keeping himself out of his own account.
Andrew is now named as one of the two men. The other was very likely John, who wrote this Gospel. He never names himself in it, though he loves to speak of the faith and devotion of others.
Another writer states it plainly, and reads the same modesty in what follows.
The apostle who writes this tells us that one of these two was Andrew, but with characteristic modesty he omits to mention who the other was, because it was himself.
The verse names Andrew by his link to a more famous man. His name is not Hebrew but Greek.
Andrew is a Greek name, as Philip is in another case, and it seems to match the Hebrew name Adam. He was Simon's brother, and he was the means of leading him to the Lord, as we read in John 1, before their public call. Simon later became far more famous than Andrew himself.
That quiet position is not a lesser one. One writer compares the two brothers to the parts of a watch.
In a watch we see the hands doing their work out toward the world... But do they move themselves? No. Round at the back, hidden away and hard to find, is the fusee — a small wheel whose cogs move them... So Simon Peter, like the hands of the watch, did his work mainly in public, and Andrew did his, like the fusee, out of sight. Simon Peter preached to the crowds and brought thousands to Christ. But it was Andrew who gave the first push, by bringing Simon himself to Christ. It seemed a small, private service. Yet if we think of what Peter later accomplished, we see that it had a vast result.
Andrew had first spent the day with Jesus. What came out of that time had one clear destination.
Then comes the proper outcome of staying with Christ — finding others for Christ. So we read that one of them goes out from that holy place to find his own brother Simon, and having found him, "he brought him to Jesus". He did not bring him just to an outside place, nor to a group in that outside place, but to a Person, to Jesus.
Andrew is not remembered as a preacher, and that is part of the encouragement.
We hear Andrew's voice only three times in the Gospels. First, he tells Simon about Jesus. Next, he tells the Lord about the "five barley loaves and two fish". Last, he tells Jesus that some Gentiles want to see Him. On the first day he went off to get Peter. We hear very little of Andrew after this, but a great deal of Peter... He was probably not a great preacher, and you may not be either. But he loved Jesus, and so he brought his brother to Him.
- Heard. The two had listened to John before and had not moved. Then the word about the Lamb of God sank in and did its work.
- Followed. John was the greatest messenger of his day, yet his own disciples left him for Jesus.
- Hidden. Andrew wears his brother's name, and the writer of the Gospel keeps his own name out — the story is not about them.
- Brought. Time with Christ sent Andrew after one person. He brought him not to a place or a group, but to a Person.
- Multiplied. A small, private service put in motion the man who would later preach to thousands.
He first finds his own brother Simon, and says to him, We have found the Messias (which being interpreted is Christ).
Andrew had spent one afternoon with Jesus, and by evening he was looking for someone to tell. His announcement is only a few words long, and it raises two questions: what did "Messiah" mean, and why did Andrew go to Simon first?
Andrew's news was not a system he had adopted. It was someone he had met.
There is a simplicity in this that catches our attention. Andrew spoke with such excitement not about a new religion or a new doctrine, but about a Person. The Eternal Son was present on earth — the long-promised Christ — and Andrew had come to know Him. He then longed that his brother should know Him also.
John stops the story to translate the word for readers who do not know Hebrew. The two words behind that translation carry the same idea.
The Jews and Samaritans were expecting the Messiah, "who is called Christ." The Hebrew word is mashiach and means "anointed." The same word is used of the high priest and of the king as God's anointed. But the Lord Jesus is "the Anointed" in the fullest sense, and that is what the title "the Christ" means. It refers to the Lord as Man, anointed with the Holy Spirit.
The whole of the Old Testament had been pointing toward this figure, so the claim was enormous.
All the way through the Old Testament there was the promise of the Messiah. He was meant to heal Israel, and the nations of the earth, for God. The promise centred on His coming — the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham and David. So when they said, "We have found the Christ," it meant they had come to the Person able to hold everything for God.
One commentator lingers on the timing of that word.
I love that little word "first." It was already long past the "tenth hour." The day was done. But Andrew did not stop for food or drink or rest, or anything else. He hurried off to hunt for "his own brother."
Commentators differ over which word "first" belongs with in the Greek. The Gospel's writer also drops a hint about himself here.
Some editors take "first" with "he": Tischendorf, Meyer, Godet and Zahn. Others take it with "brother": Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort. The Evangelist hints here, without saying it outright, that he followed Andrew's example and brought his own brother to Jesus.
Of all the people Andrew could have looked for, he went to the one nearest to him.
It is beautiful to see how Andrew goes at once to testify of the One he had found, and he begins at home. "He first found his own brother Simon." He begins from the centre, and works out to the circumference.
That order has an uncomfortable edge, because relatives are often the last people we speak to.
Why is it that the lips of even earnest souls are so often sealed in front of their own relatives? It may be very important for me to carry the Gospel to unbelievers far away, or to give money to help such an excellent work. But my first responsibility is towards my own brother.
Andrew did not merely pass on information. The verse ends with a destination.
What a lovely sentence that is: "He brought him to Jesus"! He brought him to the One who had satisfied his own heart. In Him is all love, all grace, all tenderness, and all power. In short, he brought him to the One whom all sinners need, and the One who is enough for all.
Where he did not take him matters just as much.
Just take him by the hand, and try Andrew's sermon. And just do as Andrew did: "he brought him to Jesus." Mind you do this. Do not bring him to what men call the church, or to any sect or party on earth.
Andrew's part stays in the background. What it set in motion did not.
Simon Peter, like the hands of a watch, did his work mostly in public. Andrew did his out of sight, like the fusee — the small hidden wheel whose cogs move the hands. Simon Peter preached to the crowds and brought thousands to Christ. But it was Andrew who gave the first push, by bringing Simon himself to Christ. It seemed a small individual service; but if we think of what Peter afterwards accomplished, we see that it had a vast result.
- Found. Andrew's message was a discovery, not a doctrine. He had met the long-promised Anointed One in person.
- First. He went straight from Christ's company to his brother, late in the day, without stopping to rest.
- Own. He began at the centre and worked outward. The nearest relative is the first responsibility, not the last.
- Brought. He led Simon to a Person, not to a party or a movement — the One who had already satisfied his own heart.
- Result. The hidden wheel turned the visible hands. One quiet errand put Peter within reach of Christ, and thousands within reach of Peter.
And he led him to Jesus. Jesus looking at him said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonas; thou shalt be called Cephas (which interpreted is stone).
Andrew has been with Jesus, and the first thing he does is go looking for his brother. In the meeting that follows, Simon says nothing. The Lord looks at him, names him and his father, and gives him a new name.
Time with Christ makes a person go and find others. Where Andrew takes his brother matters.
There follows the proper outcome of staying with Christ — the finding of others for Christ. So we read that one of them goes out from that holy place to find his own brother Simon. Having found him, "he brought him to Jesus." He did not bring him only to an outside place, nor to a company in that outside place, but to a Person, to Jesus.
Andrew never preaches in the record. Yet he stands behind the preacher who did.
I never heard of Andrew preaching, and you hear little more of him in the Gospels. But when you get up into the glory one day, and see the Lord giving out the rewards, I think you will find that a big reward will be Andrew's. Do you not see that he was the means of the conversion of the man most used by God in those early gospel days, in bringing blessing to others?
The Lord's greeting has two halves, and each one says something about who is speaking.
"You are Simon" — then the Lord knew him, and knew what he was, though they had never met before. "You shall be" — then He was also able to foretell the future. Who could do these two things but God? Years afterwards Simon had to confess to the Lord, "You know all things." His first experience of that was at this first interview.
The Lord mentions Simon's father for a reason.
In telling Simon his name and his father's name, the Lord shows him that he is in the presence of One who knows his whole history from the moment of his birth. So at the start of his spiritual life Peter learns that the Lord knows the whole of his history as a sinner, and yet claims him as His own for ever.
Daniel and his three friends were captives in Babylon, and the king who owned them gave them new names.
Simon was a ready talker, usually the first of the disciples to speak. But when Andrew brought him to Jesus he did not get the first word. Great kings asserted their ownership over servants and slaves by changing their names, as we see with Daniel and his three friends. In the same way, when Simon came to Jesus He asserted His claim over him. But by giving him a name which meant "a stone," He did more than this. He took him over for the building that He had in view, a building Simon knew nothing about at that moment.
This meeting is direct, and it leaves Simon with two names.
Simon stands in His presence with no priest or apostle in between, no law or ritual, no church or temple. There Simon the sinner hears the words of grace: "You are Simon" — his name in nature — "you shall be called Cephas," a stone, or Peter, his new name in grace, in connection with Himself the Rock. Petros means a stone; Petra means a rock.
The new name points forward, and it fits every believer too.
The name that He gives to Simon declares his destiny rather than his character. He was a stone. A stone for a great and imperishable building which is now being prepared, made up of living stones. Every believer is what the Lord declared Simon to be. Each has become this by coming to Christ, the Living Stone (see 1 Peter 2).
Later the Lord confirmed this name, and His own words kept stone and Rock apart.
The name "Peter" means "stone." Its significance is this: it connected him with the church that Christ, the Son of the living God, was about to build. So the "Rock" on which the church rests lay in Christ Himself. Peter was no rock. Indeed he seems to have been the most impulsive and easily swayed of the disciples — see Galatians 2:11-13. He was only a stone. There is no excuse for confusing him with the Rock, because the Lord marked the difference in the words He chose.
- Found. Andrew's one day with Jesus made him a finder of others, and he started with his own brother.
- Brought. He led Simon not to a place or a company but to a Person — the only destination that meets a sinner's need.
- Known. Before Simon speaks, the Lord names his father and reads his whole story — and claims him as His own anyway.
- Named. Kings renamed their servants to show they owned them. Christ's new name claims Simon too, and puts him into a building he knew nothing about.
- Built. Cephas means "a stone": destiny, not character. Every believer who comes to Christ the Living Stone becomes what the Lord said Simon would be.