I don't recall that Jesus ever said any thing about Christians or to Christians. BTW, he never even dreamed that Christians would ever rise. If you can supply us with a quote as an evidence to that effect, we would appreciate. If you can't, know that we can't take your word for it.
If you're going to be pedantic i could have said Jesus 'followers' or disciples as the term Christian didn't arise until circa 44CE, after Jesus death, when at the Christian congregation in Antioch the Christians were called by divine providence "Christians". In other words this was the name given to followers of Christ by Jehovah.
Acts 11:26 "After he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year they assembled with them in the congregation and taught quite a crowd,
and it was first in Antioch that the disciples were by divine providence called Christians".
Secondly Jesus was absolutely expecting adherents to the new faith of Christianity as that was one of the key purposes of the Messiah. In Luke 5:27 said to the tax collector Levi "come by my follower".
Luke 5:27 "Now after this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Leʹvi sitting at the tax office, and he said to him: “Be my follower".
Jesus as the head of the Christian congregation chose 12 Apostles to serve as overseers, a governing body of elders as it were akin to the Jewish Sanhedrin who would shepherd the new Christian congregations.
Jesus wouldn't have appointed the Apostles if he didn't expect any followers or disciples, much less Christian congregations to be established.
Luke 14:27 is very clear when Jesus said "
Whoever is not carrying his torture stake and coming after me cannot be my disciple"
Again Jesus clarifys this further in Luke 14:33 "
Thus, you may be sure, none of YOU that does not say good-bye to all his belongings can be my disciple".
In fact sometimes there were even disputes over whom to follow. The Pharisees claimed to be disciples of Moses. Some who were baptized by John were followers or disciples of John.
Thus you cannot be called a Rabbi or Rabboni and not expect followers or disciples as Jesus was a teacher.
John recognized Jesus as the Messiah and began to turn his disciples over to Jesus when he said in John 3:30 "That one must keep on increasing, but I must keep on decreasing".
So you're very much mistaken if you think Jesus wasn't expecting a following/disciples as he had followers from the time he started his ministry of which the 12 sent forth by him directly as Apostles including Paul were responsible as teachers for the congregations that were established in modern day Turkey, Syria and Israel immediately after Jesus death.
Matthew 16:24 "
Then Jesus said to his disciples: “If anyone wants to come after me, let him disown himself and pick up his torture stake and
keep following me".