Bible Study John 12:20-36 Jesus Last Public Message - Follow Me to Eternal Life

This is Jesus last public message. We can infer this from John 12:36 These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them. After this verse, John recorded Jesus' teaching and conversation with his disciples in private.

Q1 Who wanted to see Jesus? What was their motivation? Did they get to Jesus? What does all these mean?

• The Greeks wanted to see Jesus (12:20). They asked Philip (Philip is a Greek name and so he was probably closer to the Greeks than others). Philip asked Andrew and they both asked Jesus. Philip and Andrew seemed to be Jesus' PR men. Jesus asked Philip to feed the people (John 6:5).
• They wanted to know Jesus more and this meant that Jesus' reputation had spread from the Jews to the Greeks. Did they just want to know out of curiosity or to be Jesus' disciples?
• Jesus' public message tell them to be His disciples and to follow Him. He is God and He is for us to follow. He is not to be our normal kind of friend for us to decide whether to follow or not.
• Some commentators said that Jesus was taking the inquiry of the Greeks as a sign of His impending death and hence the discourse. I would not say that Jesus needed to follow sign as a confirmation of the leading of the Father. His Father would tell him the forthcoming things he needed to do.

 Q2 Point out the key messages of Jesus' discourse.

1. Forecast of His Death. 12:24, 12:33
2. Glory comes from His Death! 12:23
3. The need for His death is that much fruit will comes from it 12:24
4. The glory comes from the multiple new births from His one death (on the cross).
5. We must give up our own life to receive His gift of eternal life. The secret is to exchange our lives for His life. We must love Him more than we love ourselves.  Love is more than talk and must be shown in serving Him.
6. If we say we love Him, we must follow Him and serve Him. 
7. Where Jesus is, his servant or followers must be there too. I will not just take this to mean physical closeness, but also to mean spiritual and mindset closeness. Think and do like Jesus. Jesus also implied that His followers will be where He is: now on earth and future in heaven. After Jesus' resurrection, believers are seated with Christ spiritually in the heavenly places even though physically we are here on earth. That's why believers have the authority to cast out demons and heal the sick in His Name.
8. Father God will honor those who serve Jesus - it is eternal life + rewards of crowns and cities!

Q3 Was Jesus afraid of His death? Did He change His mind? Why not?

1.  It was not an easy decision. Jesus at this stage is a man, 100% man, on earth. His soul was troubled 12:27.
2. No. Jesus made up His mind. He knew His whole life was for this very purpose of dying to save mankind. The saving of mankind is the great glory of God's goodness towards man. Jesus came to glorify God and in turns Himself is glorified by God.

Q4 Who confirm Jesus' message? How can we tell it was true?
The Heavenly Father God Himself spoke from heaven. 12:28  Then came there a voice from heaven, [saying], I have both glorified [it], and will glorify [it] again.

It was not the first time. The first time was at Jesus' baptism. The 2nd time was at the mount of transfiguration. This is the third time. After resurrection, Jesus will come in the Power of the Son of God and not as son of man.

12:29 recorded for us that the people heard it, like thunder. Some people said it was an angel and refusing to recognize that it was God and Jesus as Son of God who address God as Father.
Jesus explained that the voice was for the people benefits - to have faith in His words and thereby receive His words for eternal life. Don't miss it and yet as John pointed out later(next post), many missed it!

Q5 Discuss the implication of Jesus' death in the spiritual world.
The Christian worldview is a parallel dual universes interlinked. Mat 16:19 tell us that we, on earth, are given the authority to control events in heaven or in the spiritual dimension.  Jesus tells us what happen in the heavenly or spiritual world with His death:

31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [men] unto me.

Jesus' death resulted in the casting out of devil (prince of this world) from heaven and had a short time on earth before he is bond in chained (Heb 1:13, 10:13, Rev 12:12).

Q6 What was the blindness of the people?
The answer in given in 12:34 We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?
They could not see a suffering Messiah only a victorious Messiah. Some how they forgot about Is 53.

Q7 What was Jesus' final call?
12:36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.
The darkness is coming soon (35).

Many people argued that Jesus died two thousand years ago and so what is the hurry or urgency. The urgency is that we are unique man and not mankind. Mankind has 6000+ years of history but we are only 60-90 years. We don't know what will happen tomorrow (James 4:14). The call needs to be decided now and not wait till tomorrow (Heb 4:7). Today is the day of salvation.