John 12:20-50--Jesus Came to Save the World

John 12:20-50
English Standard Version

Some Greeks Seek Jesus
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

The Son of Man Must Be Lifted Up
27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. 34 So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” 35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

The Unbelief of the People
When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,

40 “He has blinded their eyes
    and hardened their heart,
lest they see with their eyes,
    and understand with their heart, and turn,
    and I would heal them.”

41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. 42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Jesus Came to Save the World
​44 And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

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This is something that we just take for granted as most of the Christians reading this today are probably Gentiles and not Jews.  Somehow they missed that Jesus came to the Jews first, but also to the Gentiles.  John intentionally includes this part of the narrative here to make that point, and we've seen this from early on in the Gospel of John that Jesus went to the Greeks and the Samaritans, not just the Jews.  In fact John is going to contrast how these Greeks who had seen almost no signs readily accepted who Jesus was and believed on Him, but most of the Jews who had seen all of these signs and miracles refused to believe.

First, let's see that Jesus doesn't really seem to speak to the Greeks in the way that we would expect.  They some seeking audience with Him and all Jesus says is that the time for Him to be glorified has come and that He is going to die like a seed that is planted in the ground, but that something new and better is going to come out of that death and that everyone who truly believes in Him will follow after Him--even to the point of death.  Whoever loves their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for His sake will keep it and will be given eternal life.  This sounds most confusing if you don't understand that Jesus is talking about His death, burial, resurrection and the beginning of the Church.  Jesus is extending the invitation to these Greeks to be true believers who would follow Him to the point of death and to receive eternal life.

Jesus then begins to be troubled in His soul by what He knows is coming and He has a conversation with the Father that He lets others hear.  He asks the Father if He should ask that the Father save Him from this hour now that the time has come, but He instead asks for the Father to use this situation to glorify the Father's great name.  A voice speaks from heaven and says, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again."  Not everyone heard the voice from heaven and understood it to be the voice of the Father.  Some simply heard rumbling like thunder while others imagined that it was the voice of an angel that had spoken.  Jesus said that this all happened not for His benefit, but for the benefit of those who were listening.

The conversation then takes another twist as Jesus says that it is not only time for Him to do what He has called to do and for the Father's name to be glorified, but it is time for the ruler of this world, the devil, to be cast out.  Then Jesus alludes to something He said back in John 3:14-15, "14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."  Now Jesus adds that through this event when He will be "lifted up," He will draw all men (this includes Jews and Gentiles) unto Himself.

​Jesus says this to indicate the kind of death that He was going to experience--that He would be "lifted up" on the cross, but also to point back to the serpent raised up on the pole in the wilderness in Numbers 21:4-9.  Some of the listeners (most likely the Greeks) were confused saying they had heard from the Law that the Christ (the Greek word for Messiah) would live forever.  So they are confused what is meant by saying that the Son of Man must be lifted up and they wondered who this Son of Man is that Jesus was referring to.

​Jesus again did not directly answer the question, but instead said,  “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”  What a strange response to such a simple question!  Jesus has been about the business of telling the Jews exactly who He is for quite some time and giving them signs and wonders to validate this, yet He seems to intentionally conceal His identity from these Gentiles.  Why is that?  My best answer I can give is that it wasn't time for them to know yet--the time for that would come in Acts 11 when Cornelius and those gathered with him would have the gospel preached to them by Peter in Caesarea.

Jesus leaves after saying these things and we see various reactions from the crowd.  The Jews were unbelieving and John points to the words of the prophet Isaiah which were fulfilled:

“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,

40 “He has blinded their eyes
    and hardened their heart,
lest they see with their eyes,
    and understand with their heart, and turn,
    and I would heal them.”

We are also told that Isaiah said these things because he had seen the glory of Christ and spoke of Him, yet even in the midst of many being unbelieving, there were some, even from among the rulers of the Jews, who heard and believed.  However, they remained afraid of the Pharisees and being excommunicated from their synagogues, so they remained quiet and did not confess Jesus as the Christ or the belief in him because they feared man more than they feared God and they had a greater desire for the glory that comes from man than for the glory that would come from God.  For this reason we are told to make confession with our moth publicly that Jesus is Lord for all to hear and see.  Our conversion is not something "personal" that we are to keep secret and hidden.  Secret faith is not real faith at all as we must trust the Father to be good and faithful and to leave the consequences up to Him whether that means that He needs to deliver us from danger or whether that means that He glorifies Himself and Jesus by way of our martyrdom.

At last we finally see Jesus say something that seems to speak to the Gentiles that came to seek an audience with Him as Jesus uses very inclusive language to say that whoever believes in Him believes in the Father who sent Him and whoever has seen the Son has seen the Father.  Jesus then gives an alternate reason for His coming--not only to be lifted up, but also to be the Light of the World so that whoever believes in Him would ​not remain in darkness.  This speaks directly to the issue of the Gentiles.  This was being offered to them too, but Jesus is going to make it even more clear that He's speaking to the entire audience of both Jews and Gentiles in the next few verses.

Similarly, anyone who hears the words of Christ and does not keep them them will come under judgment and condemnation.  Jesus says this even though His primary purpose in coming into the world was not to judge the world, but to save the world.  Jesus says that the very words He has spoke that such men reject will be what judges them on the last day, for His words were not His own, but He spoke only that which the Father commanded Him to speak and the words that the Father put in His mouth, so then all those who reject the words of Jesus are rejecting the words of the Father.  Jesus says that the words that He speaks are the source of eternal life (that is if mean hear them, believe them, and act on them in faith and repentance).  So even in this passage we see a glimpse of something bigger going on here that Jesus is to die not just for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles as well that "

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”  (John 3:16-24)


Joel 2:32
English Standard Version
32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

Romans 10:13
English Standard Version
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.