John Chapter 12, Verse 9, Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.  Lazarus must have gotten this a lot throughout the rest of his life and this scene is particularly curious to the people as not only the subject of the miracle but also the miracle worker Himself are in one place.  And so John tells us a large crowd came to see them.  But this also did two things.  One, it let the chief priests know where Jesus was and two, the droves of folks going to Him ignited their anger with jealousy.

 

Look at verse 10, But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also (also being the key word here as we are already well aware that they wanted to kill Jesus – Chapter 11 verse 53) because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus. 

 

In the eighth chapter of the Song of Solomon, verse 6 it says, jealousy is as cruel as the grave and interestingly enough, it was once said that “the nourishment of jealousy is doubt.”  And as we’ve seen in chapters past, even as we see now, Jesus in His earthly ministry was undeniable.  What He did, His works…undeniable.  And here droves of folks go to see Him and the one whom He had raised.  And the Chief Priests are angry…yes.  Jealous…yes.  But truly, under all that…they are terrified and wrought with doubt.  Anger, jealousy, envy, and the like…understand they are mere symptoms of a much deeper pain…fear.

 

Fear of what, Matt?  Well John tells us that it was the chief priests that conspired…and who were the chief priests?  The Sadducees.  Understand the Sanhedrin was comprised of Pharisees and Sadducees.  The Pharisees were the more liberal, the political types if you will and they believed in the resurrection.  The Sadducees however were the more spiritual and oddly enough they denied the resurrection and therefore Lazarus was a striking and current and undeniable witness against them!

 

And so fear!  Fear that they would have to say that they were wrong!  Oh the HORROR!  Please.  Humility finds no place in self sufficient people.  They would rather murder than acknowledge they were wrong.  That is how powerful fear is…how evil fear is.  And the Bible says in 2 Timothy 1:7 that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind! 

 

And so get this…eyes on the enemy, eyes on the flesh, the their case, eyes on self…will always equal fear but focus on the Lord and Him alone and great will be your power, great will be your love and guarded will be your mind.

 

What good are you afraid?  No good.  God told Gideon, send em home!  They’re not able to fight…

 

So what do you do when fear sets in?  You meet it head on with the very weapon of its demise…faith!  That’s what David did!  Read Psalm 27.  David displaced from his home, wanted dead by the king, bounty hanging over his head, cast out from his friends and family…what does he do?  Trusts in the presence, provision and promises of the Lord!  And the result, verse 14 of Chapter 27, he was filled with strength to his very core…his heart! 

 

Trust in the Lord, acknowledge the Lord…don’t place your need in man, don’t place your trust in man, don’t say I need him or I need her or I need them…that will quiet my fear…sure will > until they leave!  But Jesus said I will never leave so stop drinking from the fountain of fear…and taste of the waters of life!

 

Verse 12, The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out:  and so we have here Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as it were.  Exactly as it was foretold…to the day!  173,880 days exactly from when the command was given by Artixerxes to rebuild the temple.  Matt, what are you talking about?  Daniel 9:24-26a (written around 500 BC) from the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild the temple, the city and its wall until Messiah the Prince there shall be seven weeks and sixty two weeks (and a week is a period of seven years biblically speaking) and after the Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself…

 

So the prophecy given by Daniel.  Then we find in the book of Nehemiah Chapter 2 verses 2 - 9 the actual command given by King Artexerxes and from other clues given of this account coupled with the artifacts uncovered of modern archaeology we are able to actually nail down the exact day that this command was given…March 14^th, 445 BC.  So take 69 weeks or 69 periods of seven years and you get 483 years.  Understand the Jews held to a lunar 360 day year so take 483 years and multiply that by 360 days per year and you arrive at 173,880 days.  Now, if you convert the 173,880 days into solar years, adjusting for leap years, you arrive precisely at the year 32 AD.  Exactly within the Jewish month of Nisan and perfectly on the exact day that we find ourselves today…in John Chapter 12 as we follow Jesus into the city where He will come to the cross of Calvary.

 

Now understand…the place was swollen with folks.  Remember this is the week of Passover and so the 600k people that lived there in Jerusalem were now accommodating upwards of 2.5M people.  And they came out to the King of Kings with their palm branches and their worship…and John tells us there in verse 13 they cried out Hosanna (meaning “Save Now”) Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel (Fulfillment of Psalm 118). 

 

Verse 14, Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written “Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.”

 

So John quotes directly from Zechariah 9:9 which was written around 500 BC but He says something interesting here…He says “Fear not.”  That’s interesting because when you read Zechariah 9:9, the prophet says “Rejoice!”  So…what is God’s will for you?  Rejoicing!  What is the opposite of fear then…rejoicing!   And such a blessed word as it literally means “filled with joy once again!”  Why?  Because the King comes!

 

I like what John throws in here next though, look at Verse 16, His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him.

 

So a couple things of note here.  First, John is saying that he heard what Jesus said yet at the time, he did not understand the full picture…but it does not say that he didn’t believe Jesus.  And I think that is relevant because as we are growing in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus and as we are advancing in our conceptual and spiritual understanding of the scriptures, many times we are faced with hard truths…and many times we just don’t understand.  The disciple will believe anyway.  The follower of Jesus Christ will advance in obedience anyway.  The weak and the false disciple will not (John 6:66).  And here we have John…not understanding but following and believing none-the-less…maybe even more so…

 

And notice John says they did remember after Jesus had been glorified…after He has ascended to the Father…sometime between then and him writing his gospel…so what changed?  John and the others disciples were gathered for a meal with the door shut one night the Bible tells us in John 20:19…they were afraid…Jesus was gone, the Jews were still hot about Him and so they feared for themselves…then Jesus appears to them…what does He say “Peace be with you.”  And then He breathes into them the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit of life.  The Spirit of order.  The Spirit of understanding…and I believe the rest of that night was filled with revelation and enlightenment as the Holy Spirit settled His dwelling within them.

 

And so John says we didn’t understand then, but we do now.  And whatever it is that God is directing you through His word to do, you may not understand now…it may not be convenient now…but if you will simply believe and obey…you will find the Way…and you will one day say the same as John says here…

 

Verse 17, Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead (I love how John footstomps that fact time and time again – and we should too.  God where are you?  God why?  Take a minute and remember!  Remember the wondrous and miraculous that He has done.  It will strengthen your soul.  David did that…Moses did that…John does it now) bore witness.  For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign.  The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, “You see that you are accomplishing nothing.  Look, the world has gone after Him!”

 

So Jesus’ fame was yet growing and the Jews that had seen the dead raised to life…it must have been all that they talked about.  There was no nightly news, no NFL…and so this story, this wonder that many had seen with their very eyes had no doubt become all the buzz and here He comes…the one that did it all!  And the crowd, the 2.5M strong…flocked to just glimpse Him.  And the Jews face-palmed!

 

Verse 20, Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast.  Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

 

Now this is really cool because we have a clear contrast presented by John between the Jews and the Greeks.  The gentile and the Jews.  The Jews face-palm as they reject Jesus and plot to kill him.  The gentiles come desiring and requesting (which is a form of humility) to simply see Him.  Why is that cool, because that shows us that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, neither male nor female for we are all one in Christ Jesus and if we are Christ’s then we are heirs according to the promise.  (Galatians 3)

 

So any thought of you are lesser than someone else because of this or because of that…because you are a female and not a male, because you don’t have monetary wealth, because you are this race and not that…can be completely dismissed and utterly disregarded.  Jesus draws all to Himself and all are welcome equally into the fold of God!  And here, in this passage, John just gives us a beautiful picture of a people out of place, out of element, certainly thought to be lesser, yet they indeed are loved and drawn by the Father as they come desiring to see Jesus!

 

Verse 22, Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus.  But Jesus answered them, saying “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.  This truth, this illustration is the very heart of God…the very purpose of Jesus’ coming…to deliver this message and so Jesus cries out…it is time that God is glorified…listen up. 

 

And what He says here is entirely profound and intricately revelational.  Why?  If you set a grain of wheat on a pedestal and come back in a year…it is still one grain of wheat.  But put that little grain into the ground and shortly it will die…but out of that death comes a new form.  Everything about that little grain of wheat is made absolutely new and many seeds are brought forth from its new form.  Many?  Yes, many!  The potential of one wheat seed is tremendous! 

 

Ten planting cycles and one little seed can cover the entire earth!

 

Jesus is saying here look, unless it dies…it stays by itself, alone and unprofitable….but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.  So profound yes you may say, but intricately revelational?  Yes, because you see the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit that is the product of us taking that seed of faith and planting it in the soil of God’s will and word, according to Galatians 5:22, is love.  And you see according to John 15:13, there is no greater love than to lay down ones life for the sake of others.   

 

And so you have it.  The fruit of the Spirit, the manifestation of our regeneration in Christ, the very sign to look for that gives us proof positive that we indeed are followers of Jesus, is the laying down of our own wills, the submitting of our lives, the death to self for the sake of Him who calls us His own.  Oh Matt, that doesn’t sound so good.  Lay down my life?  That’s a pretty tough sell…well look, I’m not selling anything…and neither was Jesus…He was and I am simply speaking the truth in love…He was and I am pointing you in the way of wisdom, righteousness and life.  I’m not trying to sell, I’m trying to save.  Save you from a meaningless day, a meaningless marriage, a meaningless religion…a tragic and sorrowful life…

 

The truth is, if you live for you…you don’t live at all…What say you, Jesus, on this?  Verse 25, He who loves his life (psyche – feelings, desires, affections, aversions) in this world will lose it, and he who hates (miseo) his life in this world will keep (to protect or guard) it for eternal life. 

 

Verse 26, If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there my servant will be also.  If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor (timao – stack value upon).

 

And so, to the Greeks just as He had called to the Jews…just as He says to you so personally…follow Me.  And truly only Jesus is able to lead us into truth and a fruitful life!