Masses to a Handful

Have you been discouraged by the masses of people coming to your church to hear the truth of God’s Word dropping down to only a handful of followers?  Jesus had that problem, too.  Or just maybe he created that problem.  I was reading John 6 where Jesus had just fed the 5000 men (not counting women and children) the fishes and the loaves.  They showed up the next day wanting signs and miracles.  Jesus exposed their true hearts—they wanted him to feed them every day.  And then he preached the morbid sermon that began to send the masses away:  you must eat my flesh and drink my blood.  Even the disciples were appalled!   And this is where it gets interesting. 

Jesus explains to his disciples (after the masses left) that he was talking about spirit and life.  In a side note, John explains that from the first day Jesus began to call disciples, he knew who would have genuine faith and who would betray him.  And then Jesus said, “No one comes to me without the Father’s blessing.”   After hearing these teachings, many of his disciples walked away and no longer followed him.  How many disciples did Jesus call?   1000?   100?   50?   We know he was left with 12—and he knew one of those was his betrayer.   

It’s so interesting to have 40+ years of ministry behind us to have some perspective.  Andy was in youth ministry a good many of those years.  We’ve had large groups of youth and out of those large groups, there was always a handful who chose to follow Jesus with all of their hearts.  Not even a big number of followers—a small number.  Out of each youth group (there have been four), we’ve watched those small groups invest Jesus’ teaching in others. We may long for the MASSES to follow Jesus.  But Jesus knew there would be small groups of followers and he was content with that.  He knew that each follower could invest in another handful of followers who would invest in another handful of followers...until the whole world had heard the truth and had a chance to decide whether to follow him or not.  Don’t be fooled by the masses.  It may be time to press ahead and see who’s following.