Teaching from John 12

In one paragraph

This message came from John 12, the passage that marks the turn from what Merrill the preacher called the "book of signs" to the "book of glory." Pastor Nathan walked through four distinct groups who encountered Jesus in the days leading up to Passover, concentrating most of his time on the return to Bethany and what happened at the dinner table there. The first weeks of John's series covered what...

Read together

1. John 12:23 identified as the key verse of John 12: 'the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified'
2. John 11 raising of Lazarus described as the last of Jesus' seven sign miracles
3. John 12:1-8 Jesus retires to Ephraim, returns to Bethany, Mary anoints his feet, Judas objects
4. Deuteronomy 15:11 quoted to show Jesus was not dismissing care for the poor: 'since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you to open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land'
5. Matthew 25 referenced loosely: 'whatever you've done for the least of these, you've done also for me'
6. Psalm 118 crowd's cry 'blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord' identified as coming from this psalm
7. Zechariah 9:9 quoted as the fulfillment of Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey's colt: 'fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, sitting on the donkey's colt'
8. John 12:12-15 the triumphal entry, palm branches, crowd crying Hosanna
9. John 12:20-23 the Greeks come to Philip wishing to see Jesus, prompting Jesus to say 'the hour has come that the son of man should be glorified'
10. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 quoted during communion: 'the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread... this cup is the new covenant in my blood... as often as you drink it in remembrance of me'

Talk about it

1. The pastor described four groups around Jesus in John 12: enemies, friends, the fickle crowd, and the seeking Greeks. Which of those groups do you think you would have most naturally fallen into, and why?
2. Mary poured out something worth roughly a year's wages in a single act of devotion, and Jesus defended her. What makes it so hard for us to look at that and not react the way Judas did?
3. The pastor suggested that Judas's outrage over the wasted ointment grew out of unrealized expectations about what Jesus was supposed to do. In what ways can our own unmet expectations about how God should work push us toward cynicism or self-interest?
4. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 15 when he said the poor would always be with them, and the pastor argued that was a command to keep helping, not an excuse to stop. How does your own church community hold those two things together: worshipful devotion to Jesus and practical care for people in need?
5. The pastor closed with the question of whether we are pouring ourselves out in selfless devotion or quietly calculating how our relationship with Jesus might benefit us. What would it actually look like in your daily life to move from one toward the other?