“Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John and followed [Jesus]. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated ‘the Christ’), and he brought him to Jesus.”
John 1:40-42
“And he brought him to Jesus.”
Such a simple statement. But one that is having a significant impact on me.
As the teacher in a Sunday school class spoke yesterday about this being our task – to tell people what we know of Jesus and bring them to Him – it was like pieces of truth clicked into place for me, in a way they never have before.
In the past, when I’ve heard someone talk about bringing another person to Jesus or say, “this person brought me to Christ,” the context led me to understand it as bringing that person to believe in Him. Taking them all the way to a conversion of faith. But seeing it play out in Andrew’s life as he witnessed to his brother, the statement here doesn’t go to that extent.
Someone else’s belief is not our responsibility.
That’s entirely outside of our capability and control. And God does not task us with this.
We bring them to Jesus. He takes it from there.
Their faith. Their ability to see the truth of sin and salvation. Their conversion. Their new creation. All of it is Jesus.
We are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16) because we speak Jesus and are His hands and feet to show His love and compassion as we speak His truth. In so doing, we bring others to the true Light who enlightens everyone. The Light who has the power to make Himself known and change their hearts.
We simply speak what we know: Jesus, how He has saved us, and our experience of Him with us in our story. With this, we bring others to Him. As Andrew told his brother what he knew, and physically brought him to Jesus, and Jesus began to speak and work in Simon Peter’s life.
Oh, that this would be the defining mark of my life: bringing people to Jesus, whatever the outcome might be. One precious individual at a time. Being a light shining on top of a hill, speaking of the light and life I have known Him to be for me. Walking in the joy and freedom that I don’t have to hold all the answers someone might ask; I just speak what I know of Him, bring each one to His feet, and the rest is up to them as the Savior works in grace and wisdom. Perhaps I am one of several who will need to bring a person to Jesus before he or she truly sees and chooses Him, Jesus working through each of us.
Bringing them to faith is not our task.
Bringing them to Jesus is, that they may have the opportunity to see the One who has given us life abundant and eternal, forever in peace with Him.
In Pleasant Places 