John 12:7-22

7 But Jesus said, “Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. 

8 For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.”

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. 

10 But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also,…..

11 … because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.

12 The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 

13 took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ The King of Israel!”

14 Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written:

15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.”

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.

17 Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness. 

18 For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign.

19 The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him.

20 And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast:

21 The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.

22 Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus.

“Fear Not… Your King is Coming!”

Jesus set Judas straight, “Leave her alone, she had saved this for My burial. You will always have the poor to minister to, but you will not always have Me here with you.” Mary’s heart was pure. Her motives were pure. And she was criticized for her pure heart. Isn’t that the way it is in the world today? People with the purest of motives are criticized, simply because others are either greedy for the attention to be on them, or they are convicted within themselves and don’t want to admit they are wrong and need to change. Have you ever seen someone doing something so kind and generous, and asked within yourself, “Why is she doing that? What’s in it for her?”? That is called questioning a person’s motives when we have no reason to do that. We really should be thinking, “What a wonderful thing that person is doing. This makes me realize that I need to be doing more than I’m doing.” We are to let others spur us to good works. Our good works should spur others to want to do good works. We are examples to each other in everything that we do. Mary was a wonderful example to everyone around her on this day so many years ago. She makes me want to be better as do so many other wonderful Christian women that I am privileged to be around. 

In verse 9, it says that many of the Jews knew that Jesus was there, but they didn’t really come to see Jesus. They came to get a glimpse of the man who was raised from the dead. They wanted to lay eyes on Lazarus. I mean…..who wouldn’t want to see the man who was raised from the dead. But who was really the one who was to be glorified here? Jesus Christ was the one who raised Him up. Verse 10 just blows my mind! The chief priests were plotting to kill, not only Jesus, but Lazarus as well! What did Lazarus do to deserve this death plot?

Well… the chief priests were plotting to kill Lazarus because they blamed him for so many of the Jews going away from them and believing in Jesus. But was that Lazarus’ fault? First of all, Lazarus didn’t choose to get sick and die. And he didn’t choose to be brought back to life. That has to be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of. I guess they wanted to reverse what Jesus had done in resurrecting Lazarus by murdering him. I assume they hoped that doing that would take away Jesus’ credibility, and maybe they could get all their followers back. Wow.

The day after Jesus ate Martha’s supper and Mary anointed His feet, He went to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. A huge number of people came to the feast because they heard that Jesus was coming. In my Bible, above these verses, it says “The Triumphal Entry”. I don’t think that truly describes it. Jesus was coming to Jerusalem to be the sacrificial Passover lamb. I guess it is “triumphal” because of how the people reacted when He came into town. The people did not know that Jesus was marching towards His death when He came into town. He was acknowledged as “King of Israel” when He came into town. He found a donkey and rode across the palm branches that the people had laid down in honor of His arrival. The palm branch symbolized victory to these people. The palm branch was on the coins from the Maccabean revolt, where Israel successfully defeated King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who persecuted the Jews and tried to force them to give up their religion. “Hosanna” means “save us” or “save, we pray”. This comes from Psalm 118:25 which says, “Save now, I pray, O Lord.” The people quoted Psalm 118:26 when they said, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” His arrival on a donkey fulfills the prophecy from Zechariah 9:9 which says, “…..Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” This “triumphal entry” happened about six days before Jesus was arrested, tried unfairly, scourged, beaten, mocked and nailed to a cross to die between two thieves. When the people gathered that day to lay palm branches down to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, they had no idea that this man they called their king would be murdered in the span of a week. The man to whom they cried out “Hosanna!”… which means, ”Save us!”… would indeed save them very soon… just not in the way they thought.

This account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is recorded in all four gospels. All of them except Luke’s account quote parts Zechariah 9:9, which reads, ““Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.” John uses the words, “Fear not, daughter of Zion” in his account where the other gospels don’t record the phrase “fear not”! Zechariah 9:9 says “rejoice greatly”! They mean the same thing. Rejoice…..because you have no reason to fear! Your King Jesus is here! He is bringing salvation to you! Verse 16 says that His disciples didn’t understand these things, but remembered later what was written about Him in the Old Testament. They remembered these things when Jesus was “glorified” which means they remembered after His death on the cross. Every time I read about the disciples remembering things later on, I think of the “helper” that Jesus said would come to help them remember everything they needed to know to fulfill their purpose for Jesus after He ascended back to the Father (John 14:26). Imagine the scene. The people who witnessed Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead were present, and were shouting and bearing witness of what they saw Jesus do. This caused more people to “come and see” Jesus and believe in Him. I am to bear witness for Jesus today. No one who is alive today saw Jesus, but we fully believe everything we have read about Him in God’s Word. We have studied, and the evidence is overwhelming. We are commissioned by Jesus to be His witnesses today. We must present the evidence to others, and try with all our might to help them understand and know the truth before it’s too late. 

The Pharisees had tried so hard to discredit and undermine Jesus, but the harder they tried, the more popular He seemed to become! In frustration they said, paraphrasing, “What good are we doing? Look at this! The whole world is following him!” This made them want to kill Him all the more. Little did they know that they, like Caiaphas in previous verses, had just made another prophetic statement. The world would always recognize Jesus in one way or another. To this day, whether one chooses to follow Him or not, Jesus Christ is the most important person to ever walk the face of the earth. His coming into the world is our time marker. Everything that has ever happened in history either happened before His birth or after His birth. His birth is the ultimate time marker for this world. How amazing is that! It is 2026 because of Him! 

Until I began this in-depth study of John, I never realized what an important set of verses John 12:20-22 was. The Greeks were non-Jewish people who had come to the feast for one purpose…..to meet Jesus. Non-Jewish people didn’t normally attend the Jewish Passover feast. What would it mean to them? It wouldn’t have any significance to them. These people had heard about Jesus, and wanted to meet Him and learn more about Him. This was important because it shows that Jesus’ actions and words had spread outside of the Jewish community. This was exactly what God wanted. Jesus was to be preached to the Jews first, and then to the Gentiles. The Greeks were Gentiles. These Greeks were drawn to the Messiah. People are still being drawn to Him every single day in 2026. They just need to be taught the truth of how to become Christians, and so many times that is not happening today. Sadly, the truth is getting twisted.

 Philip and Andrew did their jobs as disciples. These Greeks wanted to meet Jesus, and Philip and Andrew went straight to Jesus and told Him. What should we do today when people want to meet Jesus? Well, in a way, we do the same thing that Philip and Andrew did. We go straight to Jesus. How do we do that? Well…..we go straight to His Word. It might look a little different than it did so many years ago when Jesus was on earth in the flesh, but it is really not that different. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus is the Word as John 1:14 confirms with the words, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. Let’s take them straight to Jesus…..straight to His Word……where the one and only pure gospel truth is found. 

The title of this post is: “Fear Not… Your King is Coming”. Our King is coming. We don’t have anything to fear as long as we are living for King Jesus and His purpose. Are we ready for His arrival? 

God’s Plan of Salvation

Below is the plan God has outlined in His Word for humankind to receive His grace, which leads to salvation and an eternity with God in heaven. This plan is straight from the Bible. 

We have to hear His word. (Romans 10:17) 

Upon hearing the message of Jesus, we believe it. (Mark 16:16) 

Then, we confess Jesus’ name before men. (Matthew 10:32) 

Next, we repent of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19) 

Finally, we are baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins.  (Acts 2:38, Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:16, Romans 6:3-4, Acts 22:16, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:26-27) After baptism, God adds us to His church. (Acts 2:47)

Then, we must remain faithful until death or until Jesus returns, whichever comes first. (Rev. 2:10)

God means for everyone to learn what the Bible teaches about being saved. It only takes an open heart for Jesus and a willingness to put away what we’ve been taught in the past, and truly read what God’s Word says for ourselves… and then accept what it says and obey it. If I can help you in any way, I would love to! Are you walking in the light? Are you in Christ? Are you saved? If you aren’t, or if you’re not sure if you are, I’d love to help you. Are you a member of the Lord’s church, but are struggling spiritually in your walk with Christ? If  you are… believe me, I’ve been there many times, and I’d love to help you. If you have any questions, please reach out. 

I love God’s Word. It challenges me to be better… to do more in His service. It is interesting and keeps me on the edge of my seat, wondering what will happen next. It gives me confidence and builds me up, and it brings me to my knees when my soul needs convicting! Thank you, Father, for the wonderful gift of Your Word!