31. John 12:20-36 Jesus Foretells His Death

April 1st, 2025
by Randy Eliason

1. SCRIPTURE

SCRIPTURE READING: JOHN 12:20-36
SCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHTS:
Vs 23-25 The time has come,” said Jesus in reply. “This is the moment for the son of man to be glorified. I’m telling you the solemn truth: unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains all by itself. If it dies, though, it will produce lots of fruit. If you love your life, you’ll lose it. If you hate your life in this world, you’ll keep it for the life of the coming age.

Vs 32-33 And when I’ve been lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” He said this in order to point to the kind of death he was going to die.

2. OBSERVATIONS :

Philip and Andrew help connect people to Jesus. Jesus disciples were not only committed to following Jesus, they were also committed to helping others know and follow Jesus.

Jesus associates the time of his death with the time of his glorification. This seems counterintuitive. Death, especially death by execution, was the ultimate a sign of defeat and humiliation. It was the farthest thing from glorification that one could imagine. The reason we call the day we remember Jesus death, “Good Friday” is because we see the glory in his death, a glory confirmed by his resurrection and ascension!!

Jesus confesses that his heart was troubled because he realized that he was going to be crucified. He was not immune to emotional or physical suffering. At the same time Jesus would not try to escape this fate because he understood that this suffering was necessary for him to accomplish his mission.

Jesus’ crucifixion (“If I be lifted up”) was intended by Jesus’ enemies to put a permanent end to his influence; to crush, once and for all, the “Jesus movement”. However, their plot to kill Jesus ended up magnifying the righteousness and love of Jesus, turning him into a magnet who, ever since that time, has drawn billions of people to believe in Him and worship him.

3. APPLICATION:

What does this passage tell me about Jesus?
Jesus’ willingness to lay his life down was the perfect act of sacrificial, selfless, love. Jesus’ life produced much fruit, but it was ultimately in Jesus’ death that death itself was defeated, and God’s new creation has begun to bloom. Jesus’ willingness to take up his cross and die for us was the ultimate sacrifice, and as such it was the ultimate act of love. It is this love that has softened the hearts of billions of people, drawing them to worship Jesus with an “appreciation love”, a loving response to the initiating love of Jesus.

What does this passage teach me about myself/mankind?
Philip and Andrew are What a perfect picture of what followers of Jesus are called to do!

What does this passage impact my affections, attitudes and actions?
Philip and Andrew are a perfect picture of what followers of Jesus are called to do! The “built a bridge” between Jesus and those who needed him. I want to be the same kind of “bridge builder”. Although I am not called to imitate Jesus’ act of dying on the cross, I am called to embrace the principle that dying to self is necessary to become alive to God and to really experience a life which produces fruit for God’s glory. When I meditate on all that was involved in Jesus’ sacrificial death, I feel a renewed love for him and desire to serve him.

4. PRAYER:

Dear Jesus, thank you for your willingness to do the Father’s will no matter how what the cost. Help me to have the same courage to choose love over comfort and righteousness over pleasure. Help me remember that those who sow in tears will reap in joy; that to experience true life I must be willing to give up chasing after the stuff of this earthly life.

In Your name, Amen.

Posted in The Gospel of John Part 2 (21-40)