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01.09.2012 Religion

YOU AND YOUR FOLLOWERS

01.09.2012 LISTEN
By Edwin Nii Ayerh Adjei

Matthew 4:25
Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis (the Ten Cities), Jerusalem, Judea and the regions across Jordan followed Him.

In today's world, being or having a role model is a very big deal. There are so many celebrities and role models on our planet earth today. People cough in a peculiar manner, and they become a celebrity for coughing. The next day, they have already amassed so many followers. We have come to a place where dishearteningly, even people who are cast in pornographic movies are viewed and admired as stars and celebrities. Why is it so? Why must people have their lives driven by and revolve around such trivial and nonsensical issues and people?


On the social network Twitter, to correspond with someone, you must “follow” the person. Some US market researchers studied Twitter a while back to check what kind of information is being posted on its web service and this is what they found; over 40 percent of the “tweets” were “pointless babble”, stuff like “I'm having a sandwich”. Another 37 percent were listed as “conversational”, basically instant messages sent from one individual to another. Less than 9 percent had any “pass-along value”, and the rest of the percentage which was smaller, represented “self-promotion”, “spam”, and “news” items. Interestingly, we have millions of people following the so-called role models and celebrities on twitter which by the facts I have given, inform us of how many unimportant things and rubbish these followers are being fed.

In Jesus' day, it was not a common thing for one individual to have so many followers and believers as is common today, yet there are several accounts in the four gospels to prove that Jesus always had a lot of followers. Everywhere He went, people left their businesses, possessions, the comfort of their homes, their spouses; some even jeopardized their statuses, authority and governmental positions just to follow this one man.

On one occasion – Matthew 14:13-21; we are told that even after Jesus managed to sneak away from the people by boat to a solitary place, they still managed to discover His location and followed Him there by foot from the towns. On that occasion, when evening came, he had to feed the people and the number was overwhelming. Matthew 14:21 reads, “The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.” I can conjecture from this that the number of people who followed Jesus on this occasion was well over ten thousand. This is because apart from the number of men being about five thousand, we all know that most of the time, women are more in participation than men when it comes to occasions like this one; not to talk of the presence of children as well. It was not as if He had large banners, emphatic billboards and elaborate radio and TV adverts to announce that He was coming to town for a gigantic crusade so everybody must be there. No! People just got word of His presence somewhere, and before you knew, they were swamped all over Him, all because of the life He led.

Some people may say that Jesus was followed by large crowds because of the miracles He performed. Well, this may have some substance but one important thing we need to know is that Jesus never performed any miracles unless they were absolutely necessary or the people who requested for His miraculous touch had genuine and important need of this touch. With that said, why then would large crowds follow Him?


In Acts 1:1, Luke writes, “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach.” There! You have it! The writer gives us the reason why large crowds always followed Jesus. Jesus, wherever He went, had a lot of followers because before He taught anything, He did them. Not only did He teach wisdom or how a Christian must live or proclaim to be the Son of God; He also modeled it. The things we do define our habits which define our character and essentially, who we are. Many people followed Jesus and accepted His teachings because He was already a perfect example of what He taught. He did not just talk the talk, He walked the talk. Although some people ignored Him, thousands of people just followed Him not only because His teachings were profound and life transforming, but most importantly, His personality and character was very credible.

As a Christian woman, how do people perceive you when you dress? Is it “Wow! This lady is hot!” or “Wow! This is a virtuous woman, a true follower of Christ!”? The same goes for the men. What you speak, where you go, what you do, do they glorify God? Would people say “I will follow your ways because you follow the ways of Christ”? What do people follow you for? As a Christian, it is what you do and how you live that will determine whether you will get followers or not and not because you profess with your mouth that you are a Christian or you carry a big Bible every Sunday and shout Hallelujah. The early Christians did not go about calling themselves Christians. They were called so at Antioch because the people found them to follow the ways of Christ.

Today, people like Lady Gaga have more followers than any individual Christian or Preacher so far as I can tell not because there are no good Preachers or Christians but because majority of the world's population who profess to be Christians are remotely far from being such.

In Jesus' day, He did not have the benefit of technologies such as the internet, PA systems, printing and publishing houses, CDs, DVDs, smart phones, tablet computers, laptops, air planes, bibles in every format and translation possible, yet He had great crowds following Him not only in one region but from region to region, city to city and town to town. He was not present everywhere as is possible today through the Holy Spirit living in us, yet how much impact in this day can be likened to what was made in Jesus' day. He said in John 14:12 that, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” In the great commission in Matthew 28:19, He said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…”.

Jesus commissioned us to make disciples of all nations and He also did say that we can do greater works than He did but seriously, can you confidently say you have your family, household, colleagues, peer group, or even your best friend or spouse following you as people followed Christ? Whom have you been a role model to? Whose life have you inspired, impacted or transformed? How many souls can you boast of bringing to Jesus Christ since you became a Christian? According to Matthew 5:13-16; as Christians, we are supposed to be role models. This means there is a lot of work to be done, so please wake up and start getting followers.

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