Some debate whether Jesus really came to save anyone and everyone. Some say that Jesus’ invitation for salvation is to everyone, while others say that Jesus is seeking and saving only certain people. Well, we need look no further than Jesus’ earthly ministry to see who Jesus is looking for. In the book of John, we see a few categories of people for whom Jesus came.
In John chapter one, we see that Jesus is looking for the seeker. At the dawn of His earthly ministry, Jesus met a couple seekers who had been following his cousin, John the Baptist. John 1:35-36 says, “Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.” John the Baptist fulfilled his purpose of declaring Who Jesus Christ was and what His mission was. As a result of this declaration, two curious disciples of John followed Jesus to find out more about Him. Verse 38-39 says, “Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see.” These two were seeking for the Messiah. All it took for them to find Him was a faithful John the Baptist who declared Him. A few verses later, we find that one of these seekers, Andrew, then declared Christ to his brother, saying, “We have found the Messias, which is being interpreted, the Christ.” (John 1:41) When this seeker had found what he had been looking for, he shared that discovery with others. And what did Jesus say to such seekers? He said, “Follow me.” (John 1:43) Jesus came for the seekers.
John chapter 4 tells the story of woman who represents another category of people for whom Jesus came—the sinners. Now, while all of us fall into this category by nature (we are all sinners) I am referring to those that even society would label sinners. I mean the one who is an outcast, who is called dirty, unwanted, and unlovely. That is who Jesus found by a well in Samaria. In John 4:4, the Bible says that Jesus “must needs go through Samaria.” In those days, a “good” Jew never needed to go through Samaria. In fact, they would go out of their way not to go through Samaria. Yet Jesus went out of His way to keep a divine appointment. In the heat of the day, Jesus stopped at a well and met a woman who came alone to fetch water. To her surprise, Jesus spoke to her, “Give me to drink.” (John 4:7) This led to a conversation in which Jesus gradually revealed His identity. First, the woman asked Jesus, “Art thou greater than our Father Jacob?” (v. 12) Next, she says, “I perceive that thou art a prophet.” She’s getting warmer. Then Jesus lays it all out there, saying, “I that speak unto thee am he [Messiah].” (v. 26) This revelation motivated the woman to go on a mission of finding others like herself. She exclaimed to them, “Is not this the Christ?” (v. 29) Bingo! She got it. She may have been someone that people in that day would have considered to be the lowest of society, but she responded to Jesus. Jesus then tells His disciples to look for others like the Samaritan woman. In verse 35, Jesus says, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” The Samaritan woman certainly hadn’t wasted any time finding people like herself. She told everyone she knew what had happened to her and brought them to Jesus so they could see and hear Him for themselves. As a result, “many more believed” (John 4:41). Those she brought to Jesus did not proclaim Him to be the Savior of the few. Rather, they proclaimed Jesus to be “indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” (John 4:42). Like He was then, Jesus today is looking for the sinners.
As John 5 shows us, Jesus didn’t just come looking for the seeker and the sinner. Jesus also came for the skeptic—for those who do not intend to find Him. After healing a man on the sabbath, the religious Jews of that day wanted to kill Jesus because He had disregarded their rituals. When they confronted Him about the miracle, Jesus attributed it to His Father God. This made the Jews want to kill Jesus even more “because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” (John 5:18) These Jews had all the evidence of Jesus’ identity before them, yet they remained skeptical because they did not want to believe in Jesus. Jesus does not strike them dead or even ignore them. Rather, Jesus confronted them with the truth. Jesus again laid out the evidence for His deity, saying, “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.” Jesus then went on to warn them of the coming judgement day when everyone will be held accountable for what they have done with the Son. Yet in all this hard, confrontational truth-telling, Jesus’ objective was the same as it had been for the seekers and the sinners—“but these things I say, that ye might be saved.” Jesus made it clear that whether they believed or not was their own decision. However, He didn’t leave them without laying out the poignant evidence for His identity. He didn’t leave them without the admonition to reconcile their supposed belief in the book of Moses and their disbelief in the One of whom Moses had written. Jesus didn’t shun or ignore the skeptic. He sought out the skeptic.
Then, in John 6, we see another category of people for whom Jesus is looking. In Galilee, a great multitude followed Jesus because of the miracles He had done. After Jesus met their physical need for food, the multitude sought Him out again for more of the same. In verse 28, they ask Jesus, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” By this they meant, how could they perform the miracle of providing food for a multitude like Jesus had? Jesus redirects their focus, answering, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” In other words, Jesus wasn’t looking for mighty disciples who could do amazing miracles. He was looking for ordinary people who would believe on Him. So, this category of people is the catch-all category. Maybe you don’t identify as a seeker, or a sinner, or a skeptic. Maybe you’re just curious about Jesus, like these people were. Well, that’s okay because God is looking for you!
None of us—whether seeker, sinner, skeptic, or curious—naturally come to God. On our own, we are lost sinful creatures that want nothing to do with Christ. Just like in a relationship, someone has to initiate interest and another must respond, so God initiated interest and He is calling on us to respond. We know God has interest in us because God has sent us an invitation in the Person of His Son. In John 6:44 Jesus said, “No man can come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” God’s drawing is not in competition with man’s free will here. God’s drawing people toward Jesus does not equate his forcing some to believe on Jesus and others to reject salvation through Jesus. According to one commentator, “Drawing, or alluring, not dragging is here to be understood.” Later, in John 12:32, Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” So, Jesus is God’s invitation to come and be saved, and this invitation is addressed to “all men.” That includes everyone—the seeker, the sinner, the skeptic—and you.
The point of Jesus’ statement in John 6 wasn’t to make the multitude of people introspective and wonder whether God had drawn them to the Messiah. Obviously, He had because they were talking to Jesus! Rather, His statement was poignant, “putting the ball back in their court.” Jesus was telling them that God had invited them, He had drawn them, but they were the ones pushing back and pushing themselves further from the Father. The point today is that Jesus is looking for you. You are the one Jesus came to seek and to save. He is drawing you. That is not a matter of question. The only question is, how have you responded to Christ’s invitation?
If you have already responded to Christ’s invitation, then it is good to remember again how we came to Christ. Who brought you to Him? Perhaps it was a friend, like Nathaniel’s friend. Any honest seeker, sinner, or skeptic that comes to Christ on His terms can have the promise of forgiveness, peace with God, and heaven for eternity. Remembering this should inspire us to be sharing that invitation with others, whether we place them in the seeker, sinner, or skeptic category. We should see others the way Jesus did—simply people who need to hear the invitation to come to God. No one is beyond the reach and power of the gospel. We should be like John the Baptist, declaring the news about Jesus to the seekers. We should be like Jesus Himself, going out of our way to discover the “sinners” hiding away from society. We should be like Jesus who confronted the skeptics with truth. Jesus is seeking, Jesus is drawing, and Jesus is still in the business of saving. So, we should be sharing.