How often have you wanted someone to see you, really see you for who you are? Have you ever wondered what some people would be like without the façade they present in public? Maybe you’ve wondered if people could see through your façade or if they genuinely cared. As Christians, we are to love everyone. We are to be concerned about their eternal soul. We should be more concerned about where they will spend eternity than with our own agenda for the day. We all live busy lives and have many balls in the air of life we seek to keep in the air, yet, God wants us to be a witness and place Him first in everything we do. I believe if we put sharing Jesus first, God will provide the time and opportunities for other things that are important in life. After all, this life is short, and eternity is forever. What we do that has eternal value is all that will matter one day. Andrew was a disciple of Jesus and a great example of seeing others as a soul Jesus loved and died for. He saw people for who they were, not as someone he needed to impress or as someone whose relationship could benefit Him, but as someone who needed Jesus.
Andrew believed and exhibited a life of one-to-one witnessing. As you study the disciples, you find most of them preaching and teaching multitudes. You read about their boldness in the face of persecution. You see them traveling together and depending on each other. They were doing what God wanted them to do, and many were saved, but Andrew seemed to be the quieter type who saw people as individuals and went after them. He didn’t need a directive from anyone. He wanted to share what God had done for Him. He wanted to share this new life in Christ, and He did it without fanfare.
The first thing Andrew did after he met Jesus was to go and tell his brother Peter. He was excited about his new life in Christ, and he wanted to share it with his brother.
John 1:41-42 “He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.”
At the feeding of the five thousand in John chapter 6, it was Andrew who found the little boy with the loaves and fishes. While the other disciples were perplexed as to how they would feed so many, Andrew was seeking out an individual that Jesus could use.
John 6:5-9 “When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?”
Many times, in scripture, we see Andrew taking people to Jesus. In John 12:20-22, there were Greeks who wanted to see Jesus. They approach Philip, but he takes them to Andrew. Andrew understood what Jesus had to offer, and he knew that Jesus wanted to meet anyone who wanted to meet Him. Andrew’s heart was to bring people to Jesus.
We, too, must see every person we meet as a soul that Jesus loves. He came to seek and save the world, not just a select few. He died for all, and He uses us to introduce others to Him. We need to stop allowing the busyness of this world to dominate our thinking. Instead, we should see our business as an opportunity to see more people who need Jesus. The contacts that you have each day are not an accident, they are an opportunity. They are individuals that will spend eternity either in Heaven or Hell. You may be the only link to Heaven in their life. Start training yourself to see people in your path as souls Jesus died for. Train yourself to be heavenly-minded, not task-oriented. Nothing is more important than the salvation of a soul. Begin praying that you will see people that God places in your path as individuals. Pray that the Holy Spirit would give you the words that would engage them in a conversation that you can turn to spiritual things. It’s not that hard if you seriously want to see people saved.
One day I will stand before God and give an account of my life. I will give an account of all the opportunities I have missed and the blood of those who went to Hell because I was too busy to take the time to engage in an individual’s life. God has placed us here as a watchman of men’s souls. We are to tell them about Jesus. Otherwise, their blood will be on our hands. What they do with the information is between them and God, but we must sow the seed.
Ezekiel 3:17-19 “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore, hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”
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