When over the course of time did the phrase "come to Jesus" become synonymous with a difficult encounter with another?

As I understand the Gospel there were two types of people who literally came to Jesus: those who sough him out and were grateful and the Powers that be who were afraid of Jesus.

Maybe one of the reasons we Christians have lost our way in the culture is we have too many people afraid to encounter Jesus because of what we have said about him.

Perhaps if we really want people to join in the Christian way of life, we should begin with how we talk about Jesus. Perhaps we should begin to share with people not who Jesus is, but why you and I seek him out?

When we tell people about Jesus, right away it gives people the opportunity to say yes or no right away without actually encountering Jesus. When we tell people about Jesus they can reject or accept him not based upon Jesus but based upon if that person likes or dislikes the messenger.

Rather if we invited people to come and see Jesus, it would be much harder to discount him.

Perhaps this is why Jesus himself did not say much about himself but just invited people to come and follow him.

Maybe we Christians need to stop telling people who Jesus is and what he is about and invite people to see for themselves.

What would happen if we turned conversion over to Jesus and we just focused on evangelism and invite people to follow Jesus?