August 13th, 2026
How close do you want to be to God? If that question doesn’t make sense to you, then it’s possible that you’ve settled to keep God at a distance. Just as in any relationship, there are degrees of intimacy with the Lord. We must understand as believers that we get to choose how close we want to be.
James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”
This week, I’ve been thinking about different types of people who encountered Jesus as He walked the earth. They had varying degrees of encounters with Jesus, and it’s the same today! Today, I want to talk about just four different types of people who surrounded Jesus in His ministry. There are certainly more, and the ones we’re going to look at are not the unbelievers or religious people. Those who don’t know God—those who doubt, disbelieve or reject Him—could be a discussion all their own. We are only going to look at those who sought Jesus in some way.
We are first going to look at those people who made up the multitudes.
Luke 6:17-19 says,
“And He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch Him, for power came out from Him and healed them all.”
Throughout the Gospels, we see countless accounts of the multitudes that followed Jesus. They sought Him, but most of them sought Him only to receive from Him.
Jesus addressed this in John 6:24-26, which says,
‘So, when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”’
This crowd sought Him because He multiplied food, not even because of the signs and wonders pointing to His deity.
How many in the church today do exactly this? How many of us have done this at one time or another? These crowds knew Jesus worked miracles and they sought to touch Him. They knew Jesus could provide and they wanted to receive. However, that was as deep as many of their relationships with Him went.
James 2:19 says,
“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”
It’s not enough to believe in Jesus. It’s not even enough to believe in Him and want to receive from Him, yet so many are like these crowds. So many come to church just to watch and perhaps receive something. It’s a great place to start, and Jesus had mercy on the multitudes, but it cannot be where we finish. These same crowds—the ones who cried “Hosanna”—also shouted “crucify Him.” The people who come to church just to spectate and get something and not to encounter Jesus will be easily swayed. There is more!
Among these crowds were some individuals who pushed through and stand out in history. These are the desperate, whose stories we read throughout the Gospels.
Luke 18:35-43 tells us of a blind beggar who refused to be silenced by the crowds who told him Jesus wouldn’t stop for him. He cried out to Jesus in faith and he received his sight.
Luke 8:41-42, 49-56 tells us of a ruler of the synagogue who fell at Jesus’ feet in desperation and saw his daughter raised from the dead.
Luke 8:42-48 tells us of a woman who had suffered with a discharge of blood that made her a ceremonial and cultural outcast. In desperation, she crawled through the crowd surrounding Jesus to touch the hem of His garment. She received her miracle!
The Gospels are full of the stories of those who pushed through crowds, refused to be silenced, cried out in desperation, tore roofs off buildings, and more—just to get to Him. Desperation and faith get the attention of heaven. We must be desperate!
However, we can’t stop here either. Some people come to church and push through the crowds in desperation only when they need something. Your relationship with Jesus can’t be based upon your needs. Luke 17:12-19 tells us the story of ten lepers who cried out to Jesus in desperation for healing. All of them received their miracle, but only one returned and fell at Jesus’ feet, giving thanks for what God had done. Many, even today, receive a miracle or blessing and go away rejoicing, but it doesn’t lead them to the feet of Jesus. It’s good to be desperate, but we can’t stop there!
We have to leave the crowd and allow desperation to lead us to discipleship. See, the crowds and the desperate received God’s miracles and mercies because of His goodness. His grace costs us nothing. However, there is a cost to follow Him as a disciple and receive the fullness of what He has for us.
Luke 14:25-27 says,
‘Now great crowds accompanied him, and He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”’
Mark 10:29-30 says,
‘“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.”’
Jesus made clear that to follow Him, our love for Him must be so great that it makes our love for anything else look like hate. There is a cost, but the reward is a hundredfold in this life and in eternity! It is worth it.
In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus commissioned His disciples, and every disciple who would come after them, to preach the Gospel and make disciples of all nations. It’s not enough to be in the crowd surrounding Jesus, even if we’re desperate, if we aren’t encountering Jesus with such power that we are willing to become disciples—that we’re willing to lay down everything else to follow Him!
Finally, we see that among His disciples, there were those who knew Him even more intimately than the other disciples. Peter, James, and John saw things that the other nine did not. They saw Jesus transfigured on the mountain with Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:1-8). They saw Jairus’ daughter raised from the dead (Luke 8:51). They went farther with Jesus as He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane while the others stayed back (Matthew 26:36-37). They were a group of disciples that Jesus trusted with more. Even among those three, though, only John was at the cross with Jesus. Of all His disciples, John is the only one we see at the end, and it was to John that Jesus entrusted His mother after His departure (John 19:25-27). The closer we are to Jesus, the more He trusts us with the things that are close to His heart.
Psalm 25:14 says,
“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and He will show them His covenant.”
We can come as close to God as we want to come. The closer we get to Him, the more light, love, peace, strength, hope, and joy we will walk in because He is the source of life. He has good plans and incredible things for us, but He won’t force anyone to follow Him. Jesus loves the crowds—He loves the whole world—but only those who spend time becoming His disciples get to know His secrets—to live as His friends.
To conclude today, I want to ask you, as I’ve been asking myself: how close do you want to be to Jesus? Are you satisfied where you are or do you want to know Him more? The choice is ours. As we draw near to Him, He promises to draw near to us. The plans, dreams, and purposes that He has for us are infinitely more wonderful than anything we could lay down to follow Him. The cost of discipleship is our lives for His, but it is more than worth it to call the King of kings our friend!
James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”
This week, I’ve been thinking about different types of people who encountered Jesus as He walked the earth. They had varying degrees of encounters with Jesus, and it’s the same today! Today, I want to talk about just four different types of people who surrounded Jesus in His ministry. There are certainly more, and the ones we’re going to look at are not the unbelievers or religious people. Those who don’t know God—those who doubt, disbelieve or reject Him—could be a discussion all their own. We are only going to look at those who sought Jesus in some way.
We are first going to look at those people who made up the multitudes.
Luke 6:17-19 says,
“And He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch Him, for power came out from Him and healed them all.”
Throughout the Gospels, we see countless accounts of the multitudes that followed Jesus. They sought Him, but most of them sought Him only to receive from Him.
Jesus addressed this in John 6:24-26, which says,
‘So, when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”’
This crowd sought Him because He multiplied food, not even because of the signs and wonders pointing to His deity.
How many in the church today do exactly this? How many of us have done this at one time or another? These crowds knew Jesus worked miracles and they sought to touch Him. They knew Jesus could provide and they wanted to receive. However, that was as deep as many of their relationships with Him went.
James 2:19 says,
“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”
It’s not enough to believe in Jesus. It’s not even enough to believe in Him and want to receive from Him, yet so many are like these crowds. So many come to church just to watch and perhaps receive something. It’s a great place to start, and Jesus had mercy on the multitudes, but it cannot be where we finish. These same crowds—the ones who cried “Hosanna”—also shouted “crucify Him.” The people who come to church just to spectate and get something and not to encounter Jesus will be easily swayed. There is more!
Among these crowds were some individuals who pushed through and stand out in history. These are the desperate, whose stories we read throughout the Gospels.
Luke 18:35-43 tells us of a blind beggar who refused to be silenced by the crowds who told him Jesus wouldn’t stop for him. He cried out to Jesus in faith and he received his sight.
Luke 8:41-42, 49-56 tells us of a ruler of the synagogue who fell at Jesus’ feet in desperation and saw his daughter raised from the dead.
Luke 8:42-48 tells us of a woman who had suffered with a discharge of blood that made her a ceremonial and cultural outcast. In desperation, she crawled through the crowd surrounding Jesus to touch the hem of His garment. She received her miracle!
The Gospels are full of the stories of those who pushed through crowds, refused to be silenced, cried out in desperation, tore roofs off buildings, and more—just to get to Him. Desperation and faith get the attention of heaven. We must be desperate!
However, we can’t stop here either. Some people come to church and push through the crowds in desperation only when they need something. Your relationship with Jesus can’t be based upon your needs. Luke 17:12-19 tells us the story of ten lepers who cried out to Jesus in desperation for healing. All of them received their miracle, but only one returned and fell at Jesus’ feet, giving thanks for what God had done. Many, even today, receive a miracle or blessing and go away rejoicing, but it doesn’t lead them to the feet of Jesus. It’s good to be desperate, but we can’t stop there!
We have to leave the crowd and allow desperation to lead us to discipleship. See, the crowds and the desperate received God’s miracles and mercies because of His goodness. His grace costs us nothing. However, there is a cost to follow Him as a disciple and receive the fullness of what He has for us.
Luke 14:25-27 says,
‘Now great crowds accompanied him, and He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”’
Mark 10:29-30 says,
‘“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.”’
Jesus made clear that to follow Him, our love for Him must be so great that it makes our love for anything else look like hate. There is a cost, but the reward is a hundredfold in this life and in eternity! It is worth it.
In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus commissioned His disciples, and every disciple who would come after them, to preach the Gospel and make disciples of all nations. It’s not enough to be in the crowd surrounding Jesus, even if we’re desperate, if we aren’t encountering Jesus with such power that we are willing to become disciples—that we’re willing to lay down everything else to follow Him!
Finally, we see that among His disciples, there were those who knew Him even more intimately than the other disciples. Peter, James, and John saw things that the other nine did not. They saw Jesus transfigured on the mountain with Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:1-8). They saw Jairus’ daughter raised from the dead (Luke 8:51). They went farther with Jesus as He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane while the others stayed back (Matthew 26:36-37). They were a group of disciples that Jesus trusted with more. Even among those three, though, only John was at the cross with Jesus. Of all His disciples, John is the only one we see at the end, and it was to John that Jesus entrusted His mother after His departure (John 19:25-27). The closer we are to Jesus, the more He trusts us with the things that are close to His heart.
Psalm 25:14 says,
“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and He will show them His covenant.”
We can come as close to God as we want to come. The closer we get to Him, the more light, love, peace, strength, hope, and joy we will walk in because He is the source of life. He has good plans and incredible things for us, but He won’t force anyone to follow Him. Jesus loves the crowds—He loves the whole world—but only those who spend time becoming His disciples get to know His secrets—to live as His friends.
To conclude today, I want to ask you, as I’ve been asking myself: how close do you want to be to Jesus? Are you satisfied where you are or do you want to know Him more? The choice is ours. As we draw near to Him, He promises to draw near to us. The plans, dreams, and purposes that He has for us are infinitely more wonderful than anything we could lay down to follow Him. The cost of discipleship is our lives for His, but it is more than worth it to call the King of kings our friend!
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