THE KING’S BUSINESS
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Pentecost that was the most remark able in its results of any sermon ever recorded, no less than 3000 persons coming out and publicly accepting Christ on that occasion. If it had not been for the quiet, personal, hand-to- hand work of Andrew with his broth er Simon, where would this wonder ful sermon on the Day of Pentecost have been ? We have here an illustra tion of the power and tremendous im portance of personal work. Every one who finds Christ should do exactly what Andrew did, go and find some one else—and the place to begin is where he began, in our own homes. It does not say in so many words that the other of the two found his own brother, but as the other of the two was the writer himself, his customary modesty would keep him back from telling how he did the same. The use of the word ‘‘findeth” in this chapter should be carefully noted; the word occurs again in verse 43 and twice in verse 45. It is used of Andrew’s find ing his brother and of his own finding of the Christ. In the case of his find ing the Christ it shows that he had been seeking Christ and that his search had been rewarded; he had found what he sought. Any one who seeks with all his heart will find the Anointed One Whom his soul needs (Jer. 29:13). It was in this inter course with Jesus recorded in the 39th verse that he had found the Christ, and that intercourse was the result of John the Baptist’s testimony. This shows the great power that there is in sincere and hearty testimony (cf. John 4:39). Andrew was not sure that Jesus was the Messiah when John the Baptist had pointed Him out, but the personal conversation with Jesus had settled his mind. It will settle any man’s mind. A season of personal communion with Christ is worth tons of literature on Christian evidences. The announcement that it
was the Christ whom he had found was Andrew’s own interpretation of his experience. We do not read that John the Baptist used this title, though he did use titles that implied that Jesus was the Christ. On a later occasion, in a great crisis, this same Simon Peter who now for the first time heard that Jesus was the Christ made his own confession to Jesus, saying, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). On that occasion Jesus told him that flesh and blood had not revealed it unto him but His Father in heaven. Andrew told him that the One whom he had found was the Christ, but the revela tion of that fact was made directly to him by the Heavenly Father. Human testimony is not enough; we must have a direct revelation of God to actually realize that Jesus is the Christ (cf. ch. 15:26). The finding of the Messiah was to a Jew the most im portant of all possible findings. The Messiah was to him the fulfillment of all his aspirations, the consummation of all his desires. Once and forever Andrew and John had left John the Baptist ‘and followed HIM.” John the Baptist might naturally have felt very sore at heart when, he saw his two promising disciples leaving him and going after the new Teacher, but he was above that (John 3:26-30). But do not we in our smallness feel a little sore at times when we see our disciples getting so near to Jesus Him self that they can get along without us? Some preachers’ hearers never leave them to follow Jesus; because it is to themselves and not to Jesus Himself that they are constantly pointing. The Hebrew term, the Messiah (and the equivalent Greek term, the Christ) means literally, “the Anoint ed.” Jesus was the anointed Prophet, Priest and King, but the thought em phasized in the anointing is the anoint-
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