The Gospel of John
Chapter 12
Verses 1-8
It was almost Passover time. This was the time of year that the Jewish people remembered how God led the Hebrew (Jewish) people out of Egypt many, many years before.
God told them to have this time of remembering every spring.
It was 6 days before the Passover. Jesus was in Bethany. This was the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Jesus was at their home.
Martha was serving dinner to everyone. The men ate first. They did not sit on chairs the way we do. If they were poor, they sat on the floor and the food would be on a mat on the floor or on a low table. If you had more money, you still had a low table, but you had low couches (like a bed or cot) . These were put around the table. People would lay on one side facing the table and eat with one hand—-usually the right hand.
While the men were eating, Mary came into the room. She had a jar or box of very expensive perfume spices. These spices were used for different things. One way they were used were to put on a body when a person died then the body was put in a tomb.
Mary took the perfume and poured it over Jesus’ feet. Then she wiped his feet with her long hair. This showed she felt humble and thankful to Jesus.
Judas Iscariot was there. He said that Mary should not have put the perfume on Jesus’ feet. He said that was wasting the perfume. She should have sold the perfume and given the money to help poor people,
John is the one who is writing this. He said: Not that Judas cared about the poor. But Judas was the one who kept the money for the disciples. And he sometimes took some of the money and used it for himself. John said he was a thief.
Judas was the “treasurer” of the money that people gave to Jesus and his disciples.
The men had left their work of fishing, and other work and followed Jesus. They did not have money from working now. They traveled around with Jesus learning from him.
To help them people gave them “offerings” of money.
The Bible says that there were people who believed in Jesus who gave money to Jesus and his disciples to help them. In Luke 8:3 it tells of a woman named Joanna, who was a wife of a servant to the King Herod—-she gave money to Jesus. Other people also gave them money.
Much of the time, friends and family may have asked them to stay for a meal. And maybe they stayed overnight. They probably slept on mats either outside or inside.
Some of the men may have been married. Peter, we know, was married because the Bible tells about his mother-in-law. So the men would have needed some money to give to their families.
In those days, in that country, people often lived together in families of grandparents, and parents, and children. So, it could be that the wife was not left home alone with children—as would be in our day. So, the wife probably had others around her to help her.
The men were with Jesus for three and a half years. They would have need to have some way of taking care of their families. The Bible does not tell us about how this was done.
We know that the disciples and Jesus lived on very little money. But the money they had, Judas was in charge of keeping it.
John said that Judas sometimes took some of the money for himself. He was hoping Mary would have given the perfume to him. He would have sold it. He probably would have kept some of the money for himself.
Jesus said to Judas, “Leave her alone. Do not say any thing bad about what she did.
In a way, she was putting spices on my body for my death. I will not be here much longer.”
The disciples did not seem to understand what Jesus was telling them. They never
expected Jesus to die. So for Jesus to say that Mary was preparing his body for his time to die
——-this did not make sense to them..
Verses 9-10
The neighbors heard that Jesus was there in Lazarus’ house. The word got around and soon there were many people outside waiting to see Jesus. They had heard that Jesus made Lazarus alive after being dead for 4 days.
Verse 11
The Jewish leaders had decided to kill Lazarus, too. Because it was this living Lazarus—from the dead—-that made so many people begin to believe in Jesus. The Jewish leaders were jealous and did not like it.
Verse 12
The next day, Jesus started for Jerusalem. It was about 2 miles from Bethany to Jerusalem.
The people started following Jesus. There was a big crowd.
They got branches from palm trees and began to wave them. They shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is the king of Israel that comes in the name of the Lord.”
Can you imagine what the Jewish leaders thought when they heard the people call Jesus the king of Israel? Caesar was the Roman king over Israel. If the people kept shouting that Jesus was the king, they were afraid the Roman soldiers would be putting the Jewish leaders in jail.
Verse 14
Jesus found a donkey and rode through the crowd of people. When Jesus did this, he was doing what an Old Testament prophet from 500 hundred years before said he would do.
500 years before it happened the prophet Zechariah said that the Messiah would do this. Zechariah 9:9
“Look your king is coming! He is riding on a donkey’s colt.”
Matthew 21: 1-11 Tells about this, too. Matthew said, that the people took off their robes/coats and put them on the ground for the donkey to walk on. (Like rolling out a carpet or rug for a king.)
Verse 16
The disciples did not remember at this time that a prophet had told this would happen.
Later, after Jesus died and came alive —–they remembered this prophecy.
It helped them know that Jesus really was God’s son, and he was the promised Messiah.
Verse 17
People in the crowd that had seen Lazarus come back from the dead were telling other people what happened. That is why so many people were now following Jesus.
Verse 18
The Jewish leaders were watching. They said: “We have lost. Look everyone is going after Jesus!”
Verse 19
Some Jewish men came from Greece to Jerusalem. They met Philip and asked him to take them to see Jesus. Philip and his brother Andrew asked Jesus if he would see the men.
Jesus told them: “It is time for the Son of Man (Jesus) to enter into his glory.)”
Jesus like a seed. The seed must go into the ground and die and then it grows a new
plant. This new plant will have many new seeds on it. It will make a big harvest.
Jesus was saying that he was about to die like the seed. But his dying would make a
big “harvest” of new believers.
Jesus said, “Those who love their life in this world , and try to save their life will lose
it. Those who hate their life in this world, will save their life in eternity.”
In other words, loving this world and living for this world only just living for the
things that make you happy here and now in the end you will lose your life for eternity.
If you love the things of God more than you love the things of this
world you will save your life for eternity.
People who give up things here on earth to choose things of God first such as give
their time and money to send missionaries or maybe go as a missionary do things that help
people learn about God They will have much in heaven. God will give them a reward for
what they gave up for him.
Jesus said, All those people who want to be my disciples (follow Jesus) must come and
follow me.
Jesus said, My servants must be where I am. If they follow me my Father will give
them honor.
Jesus said, My spirit is troubled. Should I pray, Father save me from the cross? And yet that is the reason I came to earth.
Jesus sees his death on the cross will be soon. It is a terrible way to die. No man would
want to die on a cross. Jesus is feeling the pressure of thinking about the suffering he will have.
If Jesus would decide that he did not want to do it—-he could have called thousands of angels to come save him. Matthew 26:53.
The reason Jesus came and be born as a baby was to die. He was going to pay the
death penalty for all people. We sinned. Death came to us because of our sin. That was our
punishment for sinning. Jesus loved us so much he decided to pay the debt for us.
Verse 28,29
So Jesus prayed, “Father bring glory to your name.” A voice spoke from heaven “I have
already brought glory to my name. And I will do it again. “
When the people heard the voice some said it was thunder but other people said an
angel spoke.
Verse 30,31
Jesus told them. The voice was for you to help you believe. The time for judging the
world has come—-it is the time for the “prince of darkness” to be thrown out.
Who is the “prince of darkness”? Satan
Satan would not be thrown out of the world completely at this time. But once Jesus dies for sin and comes to life again Satan’s power over people will be broken. No
longer can Satan hold “death” over people. Jesus will forgive sin. He will give power to live
right. In the end, the person will have life forever in heaven. Satan’s power will be broken.
Some day in the future Satan will be thrown into hell’s fire forever.
Verse 32,33
Jesus said, “When I am lifted up on a cross I will draw(pull) all men unto me.”
Jesus said these to show how he would die (on a cross).
Verse 34
Die? The crowd could not believe it. They had just shouted “Here comes the king of Israel”. What did he mean he was going to die on a cross?
They said, “We understand from the Old Testament that the Messiah would live forever.
What are you saying, you are going to die? Who is this Son of Man you are talking about?”
Verse 35
Jesus said, “My light will shine (my life here) only a little while more. Walk in the light while you can, so that when the darkness comes (when I am gone) you will not fall. If you walk in the darkness you can not see. So believe in the light while there is still time, then you will become the children of light.”
People who do not know Jesus walk in darkness. They can not see the truth about God or the truth about their sin.
They need to believe in the light (Jesus) while there is still time. When the end of time has come it will be too late.
In the future, the Messiah will be King over all the earth. He will rule from Jerusalem.
His kingdom will be forever.
The first time Jesus came to earth he came to die. The second time Jesus comes to earth he will come to reign as King.
Verse 36
After Jesus said these things, he left. He kept away from everyone. He kept by himself and they did not know where he was.
Verse 37-40
For all the miracles and wonderful things that Jesus did most of the people did not believe in him. Isaiah , from the Old Testament, said this would happen.
Isaiah 6:9,10 “He has made their eyes blind so they can not see and made their hearts hard so they will not believe. They will not see nor believe nor understand nor be changed so that God could heal them.”
Verse 41
Isaiah saw a vision of the Messiah’s glory and he said these words:
What does Isaiah mean? Why would God make them blind, and hard, and not believing?
And if God made them that way they how could they be different?
Remember when God sent Moses to Pharaoh God told Moses that he would make Pharaoh’s heart hard so that he would not let the people go? Exodus 13
It meant that God was going to give Pharaoh many times to do the right thing. Over and over God was give Pharaoh a chance to say God was God and obey what God was asking.
When Pharaoh would not God made bad things happen. Pharaoh asked Moses to pray and take away the bad things. As soon as the bad things stopped Pharaoh would not let the people go.
Pharaoh said the people could go, then he changed his mind and said they could not. It happened over several times.
Time and time again the Pharaoh and the people saw the power of God.
Pharaoh would not listen to God. Every time he would not listen to God, his heart got harder.
You make your heart hard when you close your heart and will not listen to God. In that way, you could say God made your heart hard. He told you to do something over and over, but you said No over and over and every time you said NO to God your heart became harder.
The people of Jesus’ time saw him do miracles over and over. Yet each time they would not believe he was God’s son. Their heart became hard, their eyes were blind because they refused to see and believe.
Verse 42
There were men among the Jewish leaders that decided to believe in Jesus, but they did not say so to the group of Jewish leaders. They were afraid they would be put out of the church.
(They were “secret” believers for now. But a person cannot keep on being a secret believer. At some time we have to admit and say we believe in Jesus. Jesus said If you deny me before men, I will deny you before my Father which is in heaven. But if you confess me before men, I will confess you before my Father.” Matthew 10:32,33)
Verse 43
The reason they did not tell they were more afraid of men and what they would say——-than they were afraid of God and what he would say. They were more worried about having the praise of men rather than the praise of God.
Verse 44,45
Jesus said, ” He that believeth in me, believes not on me, but on the One who sent me.
He that sees me, sees the One who sent me.”
Verse 46
Jesus said, “I come as light into the world. He that believes on me will not live in darkness.”
Verse 47
He who hears me, but will not believe I will not judge him, because I did not come into the world to judge the world. I came to save it.”
Verse 48
He that will not accept me nor will receive my words there is One that will judge him.
The words I have told you will judge that person in the last days.
Verse 49
I have not talked about myself. I am talking about the Father who sent me. He told me what to say.
Verse 50
I know his commandment (law, words, rules) is life everlasting. Whatever I say is what the Father has told me to say.