Secret admirers of Jesus Christ are everywhere
In the course of carrying out missionary assignments in Nigeria, I came in contact with wonderful people who love Jesus in a way that is surprising. Their love for Christ is so outstanding but they do not want to identify with Jesus in the open.
They do not attend church services, they are not after Jesus because of miracles, and they have not been taught how to sow seeds to prosper. They just love and admire Jesus for who He is.
Their actions motivated me to look at the scripture and I saw the likes of them in the persons of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea who were secret disciples of Jesus. I came to the conclusion that in every generation and nation, there are genuine lovers of Christ who may not be willing to identify with Him in the open for one reason or the other.
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The very first time that I encountered them, I was coercive and did everything to ensure that they come to church meetings but they preferred to secretly visit me for prayers and counseling. When I remembered that Jesus did not compel Nicodemus to see Him in the daytime, I tolerated their secret visits. My decision to allow them relate with Jesus without coming to church fostered my relationship with them and helped me to disciple them covertly.
In a particular community, I met a secret admirer of Jesus who is the head of a village where no one has preached Christ nor heard about Him. We introduced Christ to him and he surrendered to His saving power but he sincerely told us that he cannot come to church for security reasons but would help us secretly mobilize his people for the Gospel crusade that we were planning.
He did mobilize them and gave us two plots of land to build a church after the crusade. For three good years he never identified with the church openly and then there arose persecution and I was declared wanted and he was instructed to either eject us out of the village or die. He confidently said to me, "I am ready to die for Jesus!" When they saw that he was resolute in his decision, they offered him a large sum of money but the poor village head rejected and opted to die for Jesus instead of ejecting us out of the village.
How many Christians who are parading themselves in churches every day will be willing to die for Jesus? How many of us will reject large sum of money for the sake of the Gospel? When Jesus was arrested, all His known disciples abandoned Him. Peter denied Him thrice before the cock crowed. It was Joseph of Arimathea who never identified with Christ publicly who had the courage to meet with Pilate and demanded the body of Christ for burial (John 19:38).
Sometimes, these secret admirers are bolder, more faithful and more committed than those of us who are church people. I have come to understand that many Christians are not genuine. They have ulterior motives for following Jesus and they belong to the category of what I call "John 6:26 church members". These are those who look for Jesus because they need bread. They do not want to be associated with His cross and the fellowship of His suffering.
Secret admirers of Christ can be found everywhere. In the Bible, Nicodemus defended Jesus before the Pharisees (John 7:50-51). In modern times, the chief imam in Plateau state, North Central Nigeria, saved the lives of about 300 Christians during an attack on the community.
In Afri-Mission and Evangelism Network, we have developed action plans under "Operation Nicodemus Platform" to follow-up with secret admirers of Christ. We counsel them secretly, disciple them if possible, and encourage them to establish house churches in their families with the Holy Spirit as their invisible pastor if it is not possible for a human pastor to operate. We do this relying on the Word of God that the anointing that they have received is well able to teach them (1 John 2:27).
It is important to note that some of these secret admirers of Christ cannot publicly identify with Jesus because of the dangers associated with Christianity in some regions. And some secret admirers in metropolitan cities just want to operate in isolation due to personal reasons. We need to apply caution while approaching them for discipleship because some of them are disgusted with churches and pastors due to frauds and abuses that are prevalent in many churches today.
We should not compel them to come to church meetings. Rather, they should be encouraged to continue in their secret relationships until they are convinced by the Holy Spirit to join any church of their choice. Otherwise, let the status quo be maintained while brotherly relationship is established between them and the church secretly.
Even among those who we think are enemies of Christ, some are secret admirers of Christ. Do we pretend that they are not Christians and treat them like outcasts or do we discover them, integrate them, and, if possible, disciple them secretly?
Oscar Amaechina is the president of Afri-Mission and Evangelism Network, Abuja, Nigeria. His calling is to take the gospel to where no one has neither preached nor heard about Jesus. He is the author of the book Mystery Of The Cross Revealed.
