We have noticed that when people come to us in outreach settings, they tend to open up to us. They let their defensive “walls” and barriers down. They share openly with us about their problems and needs, volunteering to be vulnerable.
I believe this sense of trust develops—at least in part—because they sense that we have no agenda for the encounters. We are not trying to push them in any particular direction.
There is no sense in pushing people to make a decision they are not ready to make because, as Jesus said, “No one is able to come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me attracts and draws him and gives him the desire to come to Me…” (John 6:44 AMP).
In fact, there is danger in pushing someone into a premature decision. It can actually delay their journey to salvation and make it harder for them to come to Jesus. Jesus warned us clearly of this in Matthew 12:30 (NKJV):
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”
It is crucial for us to work in cooperation with what God is doing in a person’s life, not against it. If we work in cooperation with the Lord, we will see signs that confirm that.
“And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.”—Mark 16:20 (NKJV)
If instead, we push people in a direction God is not leading them at this time, we will experience frustration, resistance, and rejection; and even if they make a momentary decision as a result of our insistence, there is real danger that it will be short-lived because it was our decision, not theirs. They may quickly fall away, and it will be much, much more difficult for them to be drawn back to Jesus. This is precisely Jesus’ warning to us in Matthew 12:30: “He who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”
Finding people who have been “scattered abroad” is easy. Just ask people what they think about Jesus. If they have a negative reaction to the name of Jesus, ask them why. Most likely they will recount negative experiences with Christians that have turned them away from Jesus and away from the Christian Church. They have been “scattered abroad.”
Their previous negative experiences with Christians will actually compound the difficulty for them to be drawn to Jesus.
Why is it that when people see a street preacher, they often cross over to the other side of the street to avoid him, but in contrast, mobs of people flocked around Jesus wherever He went? What was it about Jesus’ ministry that drew people to Him, and what is it about some of our ministry that drives people away?
As you read of Jesus’ evangelistic encounters with people in the four Gospels, take time to notice that Jesus never pushed anyone into a decision.
He never experienced resistance to an invitation because He never pushed people in a direction into which they were not already being drawn.
You never read of Jesus using persuasive arguments to bring a person to a decision to accept Him as Lord and Savior, persistently urging the person to make a decision now, before he or she leaves His presence.
It was not His way then, and it is not His way now. He was there to support and guide people on their journey, but He never pushed them into a decision.
Consider these examples:
- Jesus called the first disciples with a single, simple invitation: “Follow Me.” (Matthew 9:9; Mark 2:14; John 1:43)
- Nathaniel made his confession of faith without any urging or prompting from Jesus. (John 1:49)
- The woman at the well was not pushed to confess Jesus as Messiah. (John 4:29)
- Peter was allowed to follow Jesus for months before he finally made a confession of faith (Matthew 16:13; Mark 8:27; Luke 9:21).
- Jesus did not force His ministry on the man at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus first asked, “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:6)
- Neither did Jesus force His ministry on Blind Bartimaeus. He asked, “What do you want Me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51)
- Jesus didn’t even try to talk Judas out of the worst decision of his life—betraying Jesus to death.
Jesus never forced His ministry on anyone. In fact, there were times that He actually refused ministry to people who asked—at least at first.
Sometimes He said “no” to ministry because He believed the timing was not right, as with His mother, Mary, at the wedding in Cana. “Dear woman, why do you bring me into this?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”—John 2:4 (NIRV)
Other times he refused to minister because He believed it was outside of what He was called to do, as with the Syro-Phoenician woman. “He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel…It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”—Matthew 15:24–26 (ESV)
If persuasion and hard-sell techniques are the way to go, why not go back to the methods of the military religious crusades of the twelfth century? “Confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior now, or I will chop your head off!” If we take hard-sell approaches to their logical extreme, that is what we would get.
