Inviting Others to Follow

One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He found first his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which translated means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, "You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter). The next day He purposed to go forth into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, "Follow Me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." And Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."
(John 1:40-46)

Once Jesus truly gets ahold of our heart, we hunger for those whom we know and love to become his followers as well. We desire this for others because we have come to see that there is no one else in all of history who is like Jesus. He has no equal. We feel that if people would just grasp the gospel as we have, that they too will want to follow him. The result in us is that we look for ways to introduce people to Jesus.

At times it may feel uncomfortable. People may reject our invitations. We may even be unsure about how to invite people to check out Jesus. Early in our walk we might be very enthusiastic about reaching people for Christ, but we lack the experience and wisdom about how to approach people. In addition, we can be so zealous for Jesus and to let people know about the changes taking place in our life, that we don't realize that we are not yet able to discern whether a person would be open to hearing about Christ.

As we grow, we discover a truth known by mature Christians, that our role and privilege is to invite others to meet Jesus. We introduce people to him. We invite them to come and see. It might be to a Bible study or a church service. It might be to an outreach event. It could be that we invite people to join us and some of our Christian friends in hopes of helping them come to know Christ. In time we become the person that young Christians bring their friends to. We learn to invite people to come and see who Jesus is. Sometimes we do that directly, and other times in directly. In growing in maturity in Christ, our loyalty is revealed as not only follow Jesus ourselves, but we are also intentional about looking for opportunities to invite others to follow him.

Growth towards Christian maturity

Not Following Christ

How can we possibly invite a friend or loved one to follow Jesus when we are not following him? We can't and we won't. Before we even think of inviting others, we must first become Jesus? follower. At this point in our life, that is so far off our radar that it would sound crazy to us if we were told that someday we would be following Jesus and inviting others to follow him as well. But that is what happens to the person who matures in Christ. For now, we live our life for our own gratification and pleasure. We have no interest in Jesus. His name isn't even on our lips, except perhaps as a curse word that we don't even think about as we say it.

Learning to Follow

Then somewhere along the way we are invited to follow Jesus. Maybe we are experiencing a life crisis and our whole word is rocked. Perhaps we are finding that the things we thought would bring us pleasure and happiness have not been able to fulfill us. It is possible that we have a friend or family member whose life has dramatically changed and we find ourselves wanting what that person has. Whatever the circumstances in our life, our becoming a follower of Jesus requires that we hear an invitation to follow him. We may resist the invitation for a while. Maybe we keep being invited and keep saying no. Then one day, we say yes. It might be that the invitation comes directly from someone we know. Maybe it comes through a song or a message we hear. Possibly we hear it in something we read or watch. The invitation is given for us to follow Jesus and we respond. We start following Jesus. For some of us, our initial steps in following Christ may be sporadic and inconsistent. Others may start to follow him and leave everything else behind. The way in which we start out is not the central concern, but who it is that we are following that is significant. As we grow in our knowledge and love of Jesus we commit ourselves more and more completely to being his disciple. Through the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures, Jesus teaches us about himself and what it means to be his disciple. In time we become fully committed to following him. As we grow and changes take place in our lives, we find ourselves wanting to tell others about what is happening in us and to us. Clearly, the changes taking place in our life is not our doing. God is at work, transforming us into the likeness of His Son. These changes, much to our amazement and excitement, are birthing within us a desire to tell others about what God is doing in us. Perhaps awkwardly at first, we look for opportunities to tell others about the changes going on in us. We may not be so sure of how to tell people, but we try. Some people say that is cool and seem uninterested. To our surprise, some people reject what we are saying, telling us we are nuts. A few people may listen with some interest. But few if any want to come with us to check out this Jesus whom we are talking about. Most of what we say is more about us than it is about Jesus. Nevertheless, we are looking for opportunities to speak about his work in us.

Learning to Invite Others

The closer we get to Jesus, the more our life is transformed. Jesus is like no one else, but we struggle with how to convey that to others. Our growing desire is that others would join us in following Christ, but we struggle with how to invite them to follow him. Perhaps we think that if we could just say the right thing, people would slap their foreheads for the insights about Jesus we are revealing to them. The truth we discover is that it takes time for people to see him. There is also a spiritual reality that is battling to keep those whom we speak to from hearing the truth about Jesus or responding to the truth. The more mature we become in Christ, the more willing we become to risk rejection as we attempt to invite others to follow him. One of the dangers we face is our becoming over bearing with others. We must remember our own conversion in becoming his disciple and how resistant and slow we were. We need to be reminded that ultimately, it is God who is calling to them through us and that He is patient with them. The Lord does not force anyone to follow him, thus we must be careful not to try and force or manipulate others. What we are to do is continue to invite people. We can seek out opportunities to learn how to introduce people to Jesus and invite them to become his disciples. Our church may offer a class or training seminar. There are books we can read and lots of materials we can find online. What we are experiencing during this phase of our growth is the same types of rejection that Jesus himself experienced as he proclaimed the kingdom of God to the Jewish people. The key difference is that we are learning how to invite others to follow Jesus. We are slowly learning that we need to speak more about Jesus and less about ourselves. Even so, our heart is to invite others so that they too may know and follow Jesus as his disciples.

Compelled to Invite

Paul said that he had to preach the gospel, that he was compelled to do so. As we mature in Christ, we are compelled to invited people to get to know Jesus. We are his disciples and we understand that Jesus alone is the solution to the woes of this world. What every person in this world needs is to learn from Jesus. We realize that the picture painted in Scripture, and verified over and over again throughout history and even in our day is that few choose to listen to him. Nevertheless, our calling is to bring people to Jesus. To help people become his disciples. We are not responsible for their choice to respond or not to respond. We are responsible to point to Jesus and invite people to come and see him. In our growth towards maturity, we discover that the first steps towards someone becoming Jesus? follower are taken through the work of evangelism. Evangelism simply means that we are sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with others. We are pointing to the first steps of discipleship. Thus, whenever possible, we engage in evangelism, being compelled to invite people to know and follow Christ. The results are up to the Lord because a change of heart in the other person is needed. Our role is to proclaim Jesus. We do this by sharing our story as appropriate, but simply by sharing Jesus with others. What amazes us when we stop and think about it, is the joy we get from talking to others about him.