The First Home Mission.
I. We have here the spring of all true home mission work. Andrew had himself made acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. Note the object of the mission, "And he brought him to Jesus." In any mission work we undertake we should be satisfied with nothing less than this.
III. Note the place of this mission. It was in the most emphatic sense a homemission, and this has its lesson for us. In our zeal for the foreign heathen we are not to forget our own kinsfolk. (1) They have not the only claim upon us, but they have the first claim. (2) Even for our own sakes we must think of home. We cannot let masses of ignorance and sin and wretchedness foster and grow without bringing a blight on our own Christianity.
IV. Look at the time chosen for this first home mission. Andrew did not wait to speak to his brother till he had been made an Apostle, or even till he had become one of Christ's regular disciples. He began at once. There is a lesson here for ministers. They must begin and continue in the spirit of Andrew, not counting hours, but watching opportunities and forgetting self in love to the souls of men and zeal for the glory of Christ.
V. Let us learn from the spirit of the first home mission, Andrew went to his brother, naturally, not from calculation, but because he had it in his heart. It is in this spirit we must go to our fellowmen, whether they be closely related or not.
VI. Look at the success of the first home mission. We cannot forget that it is to Andrew we owe Simon Peter and all that he did.
J. Ker, Sermons,2nd series, p. 100.