David Diga Hernandez - Drawing Closer to Jesus

While a relationship with God is available to every believer, and while Jesus loves every believer, some believers are closer to Him than others. I want to show you a few portions of Scripture, and I want you to watch the progression here. Let’s go to Mark chapter 3, beginning at verse 9. I want to show you first the crowds that came around Jesus. Verse 9 says that because of the crowd, he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him to keep the people from crowding him, for he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, «You are the Son of God.» In verse 8, you’ll see it was when they heard about all he was doing that crowds would come around Jesus looking for a miracle. But then look here in Luke chapter 10, beginning at verse 1. Here we see the seventy-two disciples. The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. These were his instructions to them: the harvest is great, but the workers are few; so pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest. Ask him to send more workers into his fields. Verse 3: now go and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves.

So that was the group of the seventy-two that we just saw. Now I want you to notice here the progression. I want you to notice how Jesus’s inner circle begins to shrink. Now, these portions of Scripture that I’m giving to you are not in chronological order, but again, they do demonstrate that Jesus’s inner circle shrank according to whom he trusted. So that was the seventy-two; now let’s look at the twelve. Luke chapter 6, verses 12 through 16, says one day soon afterward, Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak, he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. Here are their names: Simon, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, Simon, Judas, and of course Judas Iscariot. But I want you to look back up at verse 13 and notice that the Scripture tells us that Jesus called together all of his disciples, and it was out of that larger group that Jesus chose the twelve. So Jesus selected twelve to become apostles, so he had more disciples than just the twelve.

Now, we saw the crowds, we saw the seventy-two, we saw the twelve, but his circle shrinks even more when we start to look at other portions of Scripture. Look at Matthew chapter 17. I’ll read a few verses here. Matthew chapter 17, beginning at verse 1, says six days later Jesus took Peter and the two brothers, James and John, and led them up a mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus’s appearance was transformed, so that his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as light. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus. Peter exclaimed, «Lord, it’s wonderful for us to be here! If you want, I’ll make three shelters: this memorial is one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.» But even as he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, «This is my dearly loved Son. In other words, look at my Son, not them, who brings me great joy. Listen to him.» The disciples were terrified and fell face down on the ground.

So here we see Peter, James, and John were hand-selected from the twelve to join Jesus on the mountaintop and witness the Transfiguration. Now, this was something that the other disciples did not get to witness. In fact, when they came down from the mountain, they found a father who had brought his little boy to the other disciples in hopes that they would be able to cast the demon out of him. They were not able to do so. I ministered a message a while back on how only those who’ve been on the mountaintop with Jesus have the authority to cast out demons in the valley. So the disciples who were left below were unable to cast out the demon, but when Jesus arrived, of course, he drove the demon out. But still, that demonstrates to us that Jesus hand-selected Peter, James, and John to witness his glory, to witness a different aspect of himself.

Now, we see evidence of this inner circle again in the book of Mark, chapter 14, beginning at verse 32. The Scripture says they went to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and Jesus said, «Sit here while I go and pray.» He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he became deeply troubled and distressed. He told them, «My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.» So Peter, James, and John were able to be a part of the mountaintop experience, as well as the garden experience. Jesus trusted them at his highest point and at his lowest point. The other disciples were not brought in to participate in those moments.

Now, if you want to break this down even further, John chapter 21, verse 7, says this: Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, «It is the Lord.» As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, «It is the Lord, ” he wrapped his outer garment around him, for he had taken it off, and jumped into the water. Now, of course, we know it was John who wrote this about himself and called himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. That tells you how John viewed himself and how John viewed Jesus. John understood that he was loved by Jesus, but I want to point out something else here. I want you to notice that it was John who first recognized the Lord. Peter didn’t recognize Jesus the way John recognized Jesus. This leads me to believe that John probably had a much closer relationship with Jesus than Peter and James. In fact, this is why I believe he says the disciple whom Jesus loved.

Now, even though he wrote about himself, it’s still Scripture; it’s still inspired by the Holy Spirit; it’s still true. So it was the crowd, there was the group of seventy-two, there were the twelve, there were the three who were trusted in the inner circle, and then there is the one whom Jesus loved. Now, Jesus loved all his disciples, Jesus loved all his followers, Jesus loved the crowds; he had compassion on them. But that doesn’t mean that they all had the same level of relationship with him. Now, I know believers get defensive, very defensive. They read their Bible, they pray, and they get this confidence, and this confidence—or I should say overconfidence—leads them to believe that they can never be corrected, that they can never learn anything, but they can never draw closer to Jesus. If you are not careful, the confidence in your own religious performance can keep you from becoming closer to Jesus. In other words, we become so defensive that we don’t want to admit that we could actually draw closer to him, and therefore we fail at ever attempting to do so. When somebody says, „I know the Lord; that’s it! No one needs to correct me, no one needs to teach me, no one needs to help me, ” that person is actually probably far from him.

So, the crowds heard what Jesus had done, and they followed him for what they could get from him. The seventy-two loved his teachings. The twelve loved his cause. Of course, some of them loved him. Remember, Judas had an ulterior motive. Judas thought Jesus came to establish an earthly kingdom, so he loved Jesus’s cause. The three loved him, and the one knew he was loved by him. You see that progression there. I’ll say this again: the crowds heard what Jesus had done, and they loved what he did. The seventy-two loved his teachings, and they loved the ministry that he had given to them. I’m not saying none of them loved Jesus. I’m saying this is just why they weren’t allowed in the inner circle.

Of course, most of them were probably saved; of course, most of them probably weren’t the ones referred to in Matthew chapter 7. But still, they loved his teachings and participated in ministry. The twelve loved his cause, and they were loyal to that cause. Some of them loved him, yes, but the three we know for sure loved him: Peter, James, and John for sure loved him. And out of those three, we know that John deeply loved him, for he understood that he was loved by him.

Now my question to you is, what was it about Peter, James, and John that caused the Lord to allow them into this inner circle? Of course, they spent time with him; they knew him; they loved him. The others didn’t see Jesus transfigured; the others didn’t see Jesus in distress in the garden. They got to witness him at his highest and his lowest point. Furthermore, the other two out of those three did not get to see the revelations, the imagery, and the heavenly visions that John was able to see. He wrote the book of Revelation, and even if you look in the Gospel of John, you can see there is something different about the way he describes the Lord. There’s something deeper about the way he describes the events that he witnessed. He understood Christ in a much deeper sense; he knew the Lord; he loved the Lord in a much deeper way.

I remember I would sing this worship song. It was an older worship song, but the song was simple. It would simply say, „I want to know you more, I want to know you, I want to hear your voice, I want to see your face.“ It was just this cry to get to know Jesus, and when I would sing that song, I remember I would sing that worship song with such intensity; my whole body would tense up. After singing that song, I would be physically sore because I so yearned— in fact, to this very moment, I so yearn to know him, to understand him. I don’t want to miss a single detail; I want to understand every nuance. I want to be like him in every possible way. I want him to give me more of his patience, his love, his kindness, his forgiveness, his grace, and his power. I want to be like Jesus; I am obsessed with Jesus. There is this holy obsession, this holy fixation on that one whom I love. When you sing, too, when you worship him, when you pray, when you read the word, all of these things cause a draw closer to him. I want to be one who is counted in his inner circle. I don’t want to be like the crowd who says, „Thank you for what you’ve given to me.“