One of the curious things about Jesus is that he didn’t go round trying to convince people to believe in him. There are no recorded speeches of him giving detailed reasons why people should believe in him. The main invitation he gave seems to have been “Follow me”. For example, in Mark chapter 1, his first recorded invitation is to some fishermen: “As he walked beside the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon and Simon’s brother Andrew, who were fishermen, casting a net into the sea. Jesus said, ‘Follow me. I will make you fishers for men.’”
So how did people come to believe in Jesus if Jesus didn’t go round asking them to do so? It seems that they gradually learned who he was by following him round, seeing what he said and did, and perhaps trying it out for themselves. I wonder if this has some implications for how Christians should tell others about Jesus nowadays? “Evangelism” seems to be about persuading people to believe in Jesus. It tends to be a once-off event, and it often consists of purely intellectual argument.
What if telling others about Jesus was meant to be more along the “Follow me” lines? What if we were meant to give others the opportunity to join us in living the Christian lifestyle and discover for themselves along the way who Jesus is and what it means to believe in him? The Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28 (“Go and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to do all the things that I have commanded you.” ) is usually cited as a basis for persuasion-style evangelism, but maybe it is more about inviting others to “Follow me”.