And every plant that the Father has not planted will be uprooted, Jesus said. Man-planted churches will be disqualified.
So Jesus never coerced, harassed, pressured or influenced anyone to follow him. There was no such thing as "follow up." He emphasized that by the words "If anyone." If anyone wants to follow him. If anyone has faith in him. If anyone gives a cup of water or gives up everything he has. There was always the big IF. People should be left to themselves to choose. No human intervention, whatsoever. This is important. The moment you mess with it, it becomes man's work, not God's. People have to decide and the decision should be to pursue him.
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Take It Or Leave It
That's what "following" him means. To pursue. To doggedly go after him at all costs, even if he seems to care nothing about it. And if you're in ministry, you should follow the same things. Never go after people, thinking how you can lure or attract them to you or to your church. And you should always assume an air of disinterest. You care for lost souls but you maintain disinterest.
Him saying, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" is a show of disinterest. It was take it or leave it. If you don't want to listen, then don't. Many of his disciples complained about his teaching--eating his flesh and drinking his blood--but he didn't care if they left. He even challenged the disciples who remained: “Do you want to leave, too?” They didn't. Instead, they answered with an element of pursuit:
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, who would we go to? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One from God.”
Who would we go to? That was a clear indication that they were pursuing Jesus, no matter what. He alone had the words of eternal life. He alone could feed them. People should see this in you if you're a pastor and decide to follow you. Don't look for ways to lure people to attend your church or stay in it. That is deception. If you cannot attract them with Jesus, do not attract them at all.
Many pastors are "loved" by their congregation because they worked hard to make it happen. They pampered them and gave them what they wanted. Some even let their people rule and reign in church and they (the pastors) willingly became their followers. Jesus is the Good Shepherd but he didn't do anything like that.
It should've been enough. I mean, the scene was tensed enough with Jesus challenging them to either follow or leave (making him risk losing all his disciples, which a lot of pastors fear happening to them). It even seemed he was looking for trouble. He should've stopped there. It was quite tough enough, too taxing and nerve-racking. I would've stopped there and changed topic. Confrontation like that is the last thing I want in ministry.
And anyway, Peter had answered courteously by saying, "We believe and know that you are the Holy One from God.” That would have mellowed you down and tamed you. Praise like that easily calms irked emotions.
But not Jesus. He pushed harder.
Then Jesus answered, “I chose all twelve of you, but one of you is a devil.”
I saw the disciples' faces twitching in discomfort. They didn't want to leave but the situation was somewhat getting to be a discomfort. Jesus was really provoking them, pushing them to their limit, even calling one of them a devil. If this were to happen today, I'm quite sure more than half (if not all) in church would walk out on you and later accuse you of malice or being judgmental. It's one thing to scold church members, but to call even one of them a devil? You're asking for it.
And to think that Jesus was only around 30 years old when he said this to his contemporaries.
A Potential Member
At another time, there was this young guy who was rich and smart and enterprising, a topnotch in his career. He was a ruler. Moreover, he wanted eternal life and came to Jesus for it. This successful young guy actually came to Jesus! He even called him "Good Teacher." We pastors would easily fall for this today. We'd make sure this guy becomes our member and give him an important position in church. He's what we'd call a "potential."
We'd go after him, visit him and his family and follow him up. He's a potential. And not doing so would be "lacking discernment" about who's really Godly material and can be used powerfully by God. We'd immediately trash the Kingdom principles (principle of disinterest and element of pursuit) and go all-out for this guy, making sure he becomes our church member.
But Jesus didn't.
He intentionally required him something near impossible, told him to give up what he couldn't possibly give up. Would any pastor do this today? Especially if the guy is a potential giver and supporter? We'd give him special treatment. If he shows even a glimpse of reluctance or doubt on what we said about God (like, if it's something he needed to give up for God), we'd quickly re-phrase what we said and make it acceptable to him.
Or probably talk to him one-on one, or visit him at his house, and carefully explain everything, clarifying a lot of things that he didn't like or found offensive. After all, we don't want anyone to stumble because of our careless words, do we? We're supposed to be good shepherds of the flock. right?
Well, not him. And Jesus is the Good Shepherd.
Jesus told him (not asked him) to give up all his possessions--"sell everything you have and give to the poor." That included his rulership, wealth, position and ego. In fact, that meant losing everything, being zero. That was too much. It was too unreasonable. Did he really have to do that, make things difficult for this young guy who was looking for truth, salvation and had lots of potentials? If I had that much in life, I probably would've been shocked too and walked out, stumbled and wondering why I had to do all that just to be saved.
I mean, this was about salvation! Aren't we supposed to value each soul? Wasn't heaven a free gift? "Didn't he like me?" the young guy must've thought.
Then religious people would've told Jesus that he'd be responsible for that young man's soul for making him stumble, leaving him all confused. Jesus didn't even bother to explain. What kind of a pastor was that? When finally the guy left (very sadly), Jesus didn't go after him or stop him and tell him to wait or ask him what part he didn't understand and he'd be more than happy to explain it. We'd all do that because it's part of being a good pastor or Christian, right?
Sanhedrin Member
There were many others--the demon-possessed man in Gadarenes who, after being healed, wanted to follow him (but Jesus just told him to "go home" and evangelize to his neighbors, a law teacher who wanted to follow him but whom Jesus turned down [Matthew 8.19], and Nicodemus who he said was a teacher in Israel who knew nothing about being born of spirit.
Imagine saying that to a top-ranking Pharisee of the Sanhedrin? Most pastors would've done everything to keep someone like Nicodemus in their membership, especially when this Pharisee risked himself going to Jesus at night. That was some effort for a Sanhedrin member to do. But Jesus merely told him,
"You are Israel’s teacher and do you not understand these things?"
The others he invited only once. He told them (not asked them) to follow him, and at once they "left everything" to follow Jesus. Where is this in church today, especially this element of pursuit on the part of the church members? Why are pastors pursuing after their members? No wonder then that most members are spoiled brats. They're being pampered instead of being brought up in Kingdom principles.
Wrong Foundation
Church is mostly built on a foundation of compromise. First, during the the pastor gathers people he invites for a prayer meeting or bible study. That's the first compromise--anything you do to go after people is compromise. Why? Because in principle you're asking them a favor and they give it to you. So you owe them. That becomes embedded deep in the subconscious. It's very seldom mentioned, but it's there working in their minds.
So the pastor visits them regularly and prays for them. He tries to gradually win them over and invites them to church. That's the second compromise. This all looks good, but in principle (in the spirit) this is nothing but begging people to come to your church. This system makes the pastor more and more indebted to people. And indebtedness makes you a hostage.
You know what makes all this so wrong? Because Jesus never did this. And HE is the Way.
Third, people finally try your church. Pastors feel elated with this. Finally, they have something worthy to report in the pastors' annual assembly. The next step is to encourage them to church, which means we make church look nice to them. We give them roles during the church services, make them open or close in prayer at the altar, do Scripture reading and a lot more, and this makes their ego feel good. So they begin to like it in church.
We make them feel important in church until they decide to become members and occupy sensitive positions. We teach them church politics and the power in it. When they have learned enough, they begin to control us, and later pastors become their hostage, especially when they have created their own little empires in church. Most churches today have little empires ruled by little emperors. Once you offend these emperors they threaten you with boycott or membership transfer.
So the pastor's alternative is to give in, move out or share power. Sharing power is often the case and gives the church a look of unity and harmony. They resort to "voting" because they claim that "church democracy" is important, but what really happens in their elections is that the ruling and dominant emperor and empire have the most number of votes and win. They call that God's will prevailing.
But the truth is, Jesus never did any of these things. They're all man's inventions.
A Real Jesus Church
True church has Jesus as the Foundation, and this does not just mean studying the bible and what Jesus said there. It means the church should be done the way Jesus and the apostles did it. No compromise whatsoever, with people desperately wanting to join them because they see Jesus--his Word and supernatural power. People should see Jesus in church and stubbornly pursue him there while pastors should assume Jesus' seeming nonchalance and disinterest. This leads to a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any blemish but holy and pure.
