John 12:20-41

12:21 | The Gentiles sought out Philip as a mediator, possibly because of his Greek name. Eventually, the request went to Jesus. Although He did not directly respond to their request, Jesus knew - as God in the flesh - that the divine mission to the Gentiles in His name was about to open up.

12:24 | Just as a grain of wheat needs to be planted to produce life and fruit, so it is spiritually. People can only experience life and joy when they decide to die to their self-centered existence and give control over their lives to Jesus (Matt. 10:39; 16:24; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24).

12:25-26 | These verses use two different words for life. The first, psuche, refers to one’s present existence in this world and the exercise of the mind, desires, and will. The second, zoe, refers to spiritual life everlasting. He who loves his psuche (life) will lose it, and he who hates his psuche will keep it for zoe. To pursue a psuche life with a materialistic philosophy will cause a person to miss what God wants him or her to have in the spiritual realm. The natural outflow of a zoe life is serving and following Christ.

12:27 | Here we see Jesus in His full humanity. His soul was troubled, not because He wavered in His purpose but because He knew the suffering He would endure. In bearing the sins of the world, not only would He experience physical torture, but He would be separated from the Father. Nevertheless, Jesus was “obedient to the point of death.”

12:31 | When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, they forfeited oversight of the created world to Satan (the ruler of this world). The Gospel of John is, in a sense, about the clash between the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God. It is a conflict with a known ending: Jesus will reclaim the world for God, who will put it under Christ’s rule (Rev. 11:15; 19:11-16), and He will reign with the saints (Rev. 20:4-6).

12:32-34 | When Jesus spoke of being lifted up on the cross, the crowds could not fathom how the Messiah could possibly be killed (Ps. 110:4; Ezek. 37:25). they did not understand that He must suffer in weakness in order to be a High Priest who could sympathize with thier weaknesses (Heb. 4:15) or that He would rise again and live forever.