google.com, pub-8694186777780375, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 Jesus Stalker: He Discouraged People from Following Him

Pages

Thursday, December 13, 2018

He Discouraged People from Following Him

LifeHack
Jesus actually discouraged some people from following him. I don't know if the church has considered this, but it will blow her mind away. Yes, Jesus taught us how following him was crucial. He stressed to one guy that, "If you want to be perfect, sell your possessions and give to the poor and come follow me." Following him is vital to perfection.

Yet, he told the demon possessed man he healed at Gadarenes to just go home and testify to his townsfolk about the Lord instead of following him. He also told a teacher of the law how foxes had holes and birds had nest but the Son of Man had no place to lay his head on. It's not going to be easy, he said in effect, so you better just stay. And you know what he told Nicodemus, of course.

Imagine telling a Sanhedrin member, "You're Israel's teacher and you don't know what this means?" It was an insult. If I were him, I'd probably be very careful not to offend a Pharisee of good standing like Nicodemus. I'd do everything to make him stay and have him a member of my church. I mean, a Sanhedrin guy? How can you let go a guy like that?

And a teacher of the law who had expressed willingness to "follow you wherever you go." How could Jesus dissuade all these people? Didn't he want people to join him?

And yet Jesus is the Way. He demonstrated God's way---the proper way to do ministry. And the church should re-think its tendency to please people and go after them just to get more members in. We'd do anything just to have people come to our church---and we think it's good churchmanship. Some pastors will even do circus stunts just to have people stay and come back next Sunday. But Jesus did differently.

Remember the royal official who asked Jesus to heal his dying son? Remember what Jesus told him? “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” If a "royal official" comes to us for help, we'd probably be too accommodating and say nothing but kind words to make sure the guy likes us. But not Jesus.

This royal official "went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death," but here's how Jesus responded: “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” I mean, the guy "begged" Jesus (and he was a "royal official"), and yet Jesus didn't go. He just told the guy to go home. How can you not go when someone begs you, and he's a big-time official? If a royal official "begged" me to go with him, I'd probably be obligated to go, even feel honored. But not Jesus.

What is he showing us?

It's the Kingdom principle of the element of pursuit and element of disinterest. Jesus teaches us not to be too accommodating or obliging just to please people. There should be an element of pursuit on their part and element of disinterest on our part, especially if we are pastors. Jesus was fond of saying, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." This statement embodies these two Kingdom principles---which pastors and the church have never learned fully well.

Today, we tend to please and pursue after people. And we urge pastors to do likewise.

Jesus loved people to be saved and be like him, but he never pursued them. A lot of his disciples left him after he taught them about eating his flesh and drinking his blood (and that his flesh was real food and his blood was real drink). But he didn't lift a finger to try to win them back. He simply let them---he opened the door widely for their easy exit, so to say.

Like Jesus, we should balance well between loving souls and letting them be. Wisdom from the Holy Spirit will achieve this.

The church---especially pastors---should learn from this Kingdom principle. It will make sure the church is being built according to God's pattern and design and pass his standard of quality. Otherwise, we just build churches of men and women who are full of conceit.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Going the Other Way

A law expert came to Jesus asking about how to go to heaven. Surprisingly, (at least to me it is) Jesus didn't mention anything about re...