From Newsgroup: alt.bible

JOHN 12: THE HOUR HAS COME

An Expository Devotional

THE CHAPTER AT THE HINGE

John 12 stands at the turning point of the fourth Gospel. Everything before it has been building rCo the signs, the discourses, the mounting opposition, the raising of Lazarus that forced the hand of the Sanhedrin. Everything after it moves toward the cross. Chapter 12 is the hinge. The public ministry of Jesus ends here. The world comes to see Him here. And here, for the first time without qualification, He announces: "The hour has come."

It is a chapter of sharp contrasts rCo extravagant devotion set against calculated betrayal, a triumphal entry set against a ruling council's death sentence, Greeks seeking an audience set against a grain of wheat falling into the ground to die. John 12 does not let you sit comfortably in the middle. It forces a posture. It demands a response.

DIVISION ONE: THE ANOINTING AT BETHANY (vv. 1rCo11)

Six days before the Passover, Jesus was at a supper in Bethany rCo the home of Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. Martha served. Lazarus reclined at the table. And Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. "And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil" (v. 3).

Judas Iscariot objected immediately. Why was this oil not sold and the money given to the poor? Three hundred denarii rCo nearly a year's wages rCo poured out in a single act of worship. John strips the objection of any pretense of charity: Judas said this not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and carried the money box, and helped himself to what was put in it (v. 6).

Jesus defended Mary without hesitation: "Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always" (vv. 7rCo8).

Mary did not fully understand what she was doing. She was not performing a calculated theological act. She was doing what love does when it is in the presence of Christ rCo it gives without calculation, without reservation, without counting the cost. And Jesus received it as preparation for burial. What Mary meant as worship, God consecrated as prophecy.

Here is the devotional word for every believer: there is a kind of giving to Christ that the world rCo and sometimes the church rCo will call wasteful. The hours given to prayer that could have been productive. The money given to the kingdom that could have been invested. The talents poured out in obscure service that no one will recognize or reward. Christ calls none of it waste. The fragrance filled the whole house. It still does.

DIVISION TWO: THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY (vv. 12rCo19)

The next day, the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, crying "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! The King of Israel!" (v. 13). Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it rCo fulfilling the word of Zechariah: "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt" (v. 15, cf. Zechariah 9:9).

John notes carefully that the disciples did not understand these things at the time. Only after Jesus was glorified did they recognize that these things had been written about Him and that the crowd had done these things to Him (v. 16). The entry into Jerusalem was prophetically precise rCo and the participants were unaware of the precision as it was happening. God's purposes do not require human comprehension to be fulfilled.

The Pharisees watched the crowd and drew a conclusion that was partly ironic and partly exactly right: "You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!" (v. 19). They said it in frustration. It was, in fact, the truth rCo not merely about the Jerusalem crowd, but about the gathering of a people from every nation that would follow.

DIVISION THREE: THE GREEKS AND THE GRAIN OF WHEAT (vv. 20rCo26)

Among those who came up to worship at the feast were certain Greeks. They approached Philip with a request that cuts to the heart of the whole chapter: "Sir, we wish to see Jesus" (v. 21). Philip told Andrew. Andrew and Philip told Jesus.

And Jesus answered rCo not by arranging an audience, but by announcing an hour and explaining how He would be seen by the nations. "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain" (vv. 23rCo24).

The Greeks wanted to see Jesus. The way they rCo and every Gentile, every person from every nation across every age rCo would see Him was through His death and resurrection. The grain of wheat that remains alone produces nothing. The grain that falls into the ground and dies brings forth a harvest beyond counting. The cross was not a detour from the mission. The cross was the mission. The death of Christ is the means by which the world sees Him.

He pressed the same principle onto every disciple: "He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (v. 25). The grain-of-wheat pattern is not only Christ's story rCo it is the shape of every Christian life. Self-preservation is self-destruction. Self-surrender is life. The path of the cross is not only where Jesus went. It is where He calls His own to follow.

DIVISION FOUR: THE TROUBLED SOUL AND THE FATHER'S VOICE (vv. 27rCo36)

Here is one of the most remarkable moments in the Gospel of John. Jesus, facing the cross, said: "Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name" (vv. 27rCo28).

He did not suppress the trouble. He named it. The cross was not easy for the Son of God in His humanity rCo it was a weight His soul felt with full intensity. But He did not ask to be delivered from it. He asked for the Father to be glorified in it. The prayer was not "spare Me" but "use this."

The Father answered from heaven rCo audibly. Some in the crowd said it thundered. Some said an angel spoke. Jesus said the voice came for their sake, not His: "This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake" (v. 30). God spoke from heaven over His Son at His baptism. He spoke again at the transfiguration. And He spoke here, at the threshold of the cross, confirming the Son and the mission once more.

Jesus then announced the meaning of what was about to happen: "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself" (vv. 31rCo32). The cross that looked like defeat was in fact the judgment of the world's system, the dethroning of the enemy, and the magnet that would draw men and women from every nation to the crucified and risen Son of God.

He urged the crowd to walk in the light while they had it, before the darkness overtook them rCo a final public call before He withdrew from them (v. 36).

DIVISION FIVE: THE TWO KINDS OF UNBELIEF (vv. 37rCo50)

John closes the public ministry with a sobering assessment. Despite all the signs Jesus had performed before them, they did not believe in Him rCo fulfilling Isaiah 53:1 and Isaiah 6:10. The heart of the nation had been blinded and hardened, not as an arbitrary act of divine cruelty, but as the solemn consequence of sustained, willful rejection. Isaiah had seen the glory of Christ and spoken of Him rCo and the nation whose prophets saw most clearly was the nation that in the end saw least.

Yet even among the rulers, many believed. But they would not confess it because they feared the Pharisees and loved the approval of men more than the approval of God (v. 42rCo43). This is the second kind of unbelief rCo not outright rejection, but silent capitulation. Faith that will not speak is faith that has not truly reckoned with what it believes.

Jesus raised His voice once more. He who believes in Him believes in the Father who sent Him. He who sees Him sees the Father. He came as light so that whoever believes would not remain in darkness. He did not come to judge the world but to save it rCo but the word He spoke will judge in the last day everyone who rejected it (vv. 44rCo48).

The last verse is the foundation of everything: "For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak" (vv. 49rCo50).

Every word of Jesus is a word from the Father. Every teaching, every promise, every warning, every invitation rCo the full authority of the eternal God stands behind it. To receive His word is to receive life. To set it aside is to be judged by it.

CLOSING WORD

John 12 ends the public ministry of Jesus and opens the door to the cross. It has shown you Mary's extravagant love, the crowd's shallow hosannas, the Greeks who wanted to see Jesus, a grain of wheat falling into the ground, a soul troubled but surrendered, and a world divided between those who believe and those who cannot bring themselves to confess it.

The question the chapter leaves with you is the question the Greeks brought to Philip: Do you wish to see Jesus? The answer is not found in Jerusalem, and it is not found in the crowd. It is found at the cross rCo where the grain of wheat fell, where the ruler of this world was cast out, where the lifting up of the Son of God became the drawing power that has never stopped pulling souls out of darkness and into light.

Come and see. He is still lifted up. And He is still drawing.
--
Good News rCa

Christ's death on a cross paid the debt we owe God for our sins (Colossians 2:14). The proof is God raised Him from the dead (Romans 1:4).

This means God can now remain right, while forgiving our sins (Romans 3:26) and delivering us from His coming wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10). It's a free gift for those who believe in Christ (Romans 6:23).

If you believe, call on the Lord to save you (Romans 10:9-13).

https://christrose.news/salvation

To automatically receive daily Bible teaching updates with colorful images and website formatting, subscribe to my feed in a client like Thunderbird:

https://www.christrose.news/feeds/posts/default
--- Synchronet 3.21f-Linux NewsLink 1.2