St. Andrew/ Midweek Advent
Dear friends in Christ. Our midweek Advent service this year falls on the day that the Church remembers our Lord’s Apostle, St. Andrew. It is rather fitting, since one way of figuring out when Advent, the new Church year, begins is that it begins on the Sunday closest to the feast of St. Andrew. Andrew is one of the first, if not the first [Jn. 1.35], of those who followed Jesus. Thus it is fitting that the day the Church remembers him is right near the beginning of the Church Year. At first Andrew was a disciple of John but John pointed him to Jesus. As we read in our text, Andrew was a fisherman by the Sea of Galilee and his brother was Simon Peter. In fact, as St. John [1.40] tells us, it was Andrew who found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah”…and he brought him to Jesus. It was Andrew who noticed a boy in the crowd with “five barley loaves and two fish” which led to Jesus’ miracle of the feeding of the 5000. When some Greeks wanted to see Jesus, they first approach Andrew and Philip, both of whom had Greek names.
According to tradition, after Pentecost Andrew preached in areas like northern Greece, southern Russia. He was probably crucified at Patras in Greece around the year 70 on 30 November. But the tradition that he was crucified on an x-shaped cross seems to be no older than the 14th Century. He is held in particular honor in Greece, Russia and Scotland.
In our text we meet Andrew as Jesus calls him to be a “full time” disciple and apostle: Follow Me. And it does us well as we hear our text today, to remember that in this newly begun Church Year, Jesus is again calling to each of us, Follow Me, as in the new Church year He again comes to us seeking fellowship with us.
1. Our text: Now Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men”. Nothing is by chance or coincidence with our Lord. Here He is walking by the Sea of Galilee specifically for the purpose of calling these men to be His select group of disciples.
The same thing happens to us in this new Church Year. Jesus comes to us to seek us out. Some time ago, some past Church Year ago, Jesus specifically came to you and said to you, Follow Me. That was the Church Year in which He came to you in the waters of Holy Baptism to claim you; or that was the Church Year in which He came to you in His Word and by His Holy Spirit created faith in your heart. But that doesn’t mean that He came once and that was it. No, He keeps coming to you, also now in this new Church Year. With Andrew in our text, yes, it seemed coincidental. He was merely doing the work of his calling as a fisherman. It was not a planned meeting that they had set up.
With us in the new Church Year, certainly there will be these “chance” meetings like Jesus had with Andrew. For example: we are talking with a fellow Christian and we end up talking about the Lord and we are strengthened or encouraged in our faith through the word that was spoken; but it is really not by chance but by our Lord’s design that He comes to speak to us His word through these unlikely/ coincidental instruments.
But, in our Lord’s grace, we don’t have to wait for these “chance” meetings. Instead, Jesus tells us precisely where He is and where He is waiting for us—in His holy Word and Sacrament. There, as we gather around His word and Sacrament, Jesus is there calling us and strengthening our faith and guiding us. We can be sure that He will be there because He promised to be. Do you want to be where our Lord is—daily read and study His word; join us for Bible study; be here in church where He is in His Word and Sacrament. Christ again comes to you in this newly begun Church Year and again and anew says: Come, follow Me.
Our text once again shows us the grace of our Lord: Now Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men”. Notice here, Jesus comes to Andrew where he is—casting a net to catch fish. He doesn’t make all sorts demands and requirements of him; He doesn’t demand a certain level of “holiness” before He comes to him. Instead Jesus comes to him and calls him to be His disciple. Jesus shows us the same grace as He comes to us where we are and calls us.
Are we great sinners? Jesus calls to us in our sin and says follow Me, that is, repent of that sin and receive the forgiveness I brought you and want to give you. He doesn’t demand a certain level of holiness first—merely sorrow over sin and faith in Him and His work; faith that receives His forgiveness and holiness.
Are we weak in our faith? Jesus calls to us in our weakness and says follow Me, that is, hear My word and there I will give you a strengthening of faith as My Holy Spirit works in that word; look back to your baptism and what I have given you in it and know that I am in you and you in Me; come to My holy altar and there I will give you My very Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sin and to strengthen your faith in it. In/ by His word and sacrament Jesus comes to us where we are, not just if our faith is strong; but especially when it is weak so that He may strengthen that faith and bless us in it.
Our text so clearly drives home the point that now Christ comes to us in grace. What made Andrew, a fisherman, an average working man, so precious and dear to Jesus that Jesus says to him, follow Me? Nothing according to the world’s standards. He wasn’t royalty; he wasn’t famous or rich. Spiritually? Andrew was like all of us are—a poor, miserable sinner deserving only of God’s temporal and eternal wrath. But in grace Jesus came to him to give him every blessing.
Long story, short: Jesus called Andrew not because Andrew was so good and deserving but because Jesus is so gracious. The same thing applies to us. We are now Christians not because of anything we have done, not because we’re somehow better than the rest of lost humanity but because God is gracious to us.
Again, also look at the action in our text: Now Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men”. Andrew did not choose Jesus, but Jesus came to them and chose them. That’s exactly what happened to us at our baptism, or through the Word if Jesus brought us to faith later in life. Jesus chose us; He came to us; He worked faith in Him in our hearts. Later on Jesus plainly says [Jn 15.16]: You did not choose Me but I chose you. And we see that so clearly as Jesus physically that day came to Andrew—Andrew didn’t come to Him; and that Jesus chooses us—not that we choose Him—we see so clearly because Jesus comes to us in His Word and Sacrament.
B. So, then, in this new Church Year Jesus comes to us, His dear Christians, in order to teach us and have us grow in our faith. And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men”. Andrew, together with Peter his brother, James, John and the rest of the 12 literally followed Jesus during the three years of His earthly ministry. During those years, Jesus taught them. They heard Jesus preach; they saw the miracles confirming His preaching; they saw Him crucified; they saw the risen Christ; they watched Him ascend into heaven. Through all this, the Holy Spirit was working mightily strengthening and confirming their faith so that they would then go out into the world preaching the Gospel, being fishers of men; and seal their faith and confession with their very lives—as Andrew and the rest did.
Today Jesus says to us at the beginning of the new Church Year: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men”. We now follow Jesus throughout the new Church Year that will again trace the events of His life and proclaim once again what He taught. As we gather here in church and follow Jesus’ life and teaching week after week, the Holy Spirit will be mightily at work in our hearts and lives, like He did with Andrew, strengthening and confirming our faith. We follow our Lord this year in church, for the same reason John [20.31] tells us he wrote his Gospel: that [we] may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing [we] may have life in His name.
But we do not merely follow our Lord at a distance. Instead, as we gather around His holy table He gives us with the bread and wine His very body and blood. There we receive in our mouths the very body of Christ that took our sins, was punished for our sins, that died for our sins; there we receive in our mouths the very blood that was shed to pay for our sins and reconcile us sinners to the holy God. In the holy Supper, Jesus and the blessings and benefit of His work are a present reality.
On top of that, as we confess our sins and receive the absolution, that is, as we live out our baptism, we are again reminded of what our baptism has done—it has connected us with Jesus’ death and resurrection. The barriers of time and space are gone. We are in Christ and He is in us; He gives us the blessings and benefits of His work.
2. As we follow Christ into the Church Year, as we are regularly and faithfully around His holy Word and Sacrament, we have fellowship with Him. Our text: Then they immediately left their nets and followed Him. Andrew had a new life, one of an apostle. The Lord was continually working on him, preparing him to be an apostle, a fisher of men, that is, one who would catch souls for the kingdom of heaven by preaching the Word.
That’s the glorious fellowship we, too, now have with Christ! Not only is Christ in us and we are in Him, but He is also working on us and with us. Through His Word and Sacrament He is working to strengthen and keep us in the faith; through all the experiences we will go through in this new Church Year, Jesus is working at purifying and honing our faith. This too is a tremendous comfort—as we go through various trials and hardship this new Church Year, let us remember: we are following Jesus. That means that not only is He leading the way, but He is also there with us. As He is with us, He can’t leave us alone but will comfort us with His rod and staff: His Word and sacrament; though we go through the valley of the shadow of death, we need not fear because Christ is with us. And, in fact, not only is Christ with us but even the worst thing, death, He has destroyed so that it is only a shadow. Death may try to do its worst to us, but for the Christian, all it can do is serve as the instrument through which Jesus leads our soul to heaven.
This new Church Year, let us, with Andrew, again hear the call of Jesus, Follow Me, and may we then follow Jesus boldly and joyfully into this new Church Year. Yes, we don’t know all that will happen to us, but we know only that Jesus is going on ahead of us and we are following Him. We rejoice that He comes to us and calls to us once again this new Church Year Follow Me. This is His grace to us. As we, like Andrew did, immediately leave our nets and follow Him, that is, as we take on His light, gentle, yoke of repentance and faith, we know and are assured of a glorious fellowship with Him and so look for His continued gracious working on us and His blessings to us. INJ Amen.