“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.’” John 12:20-21.

These Greeks are not Jews who lived in Greece and came for the Passover, rather they are actual Greeks. The Greeks are in contrast to the Jews in that they are Gentiles and often the name is used to mean Gentiles.

The Biblical world is made up of two races Jew and Gentile. That is not to say that other Semitic races do not exist; Arabs are Semitic, being descendents of Abraham through Hagar the Egyptian handmaid of Sarah, see Genesis 16.

The Edomites, descendants of Esau, too are Semitic; see Genesis 25 and 27 for an expanded list and an account of Esau.

The three sons of Noah who along with their three wives disembarked from the ark after the flood that wiped out the earth are Shem, Ham, and Japheth; it is they who repopulated the earth.

The sons of Shem are Semitic (Shemites = Semites), Ham and Japheth fathered the Gentiles. See Genesis 10 to follow up on their genealogy.

By the way Japheth is the father of Javan, who in turn is the father of the Greeks.

Other Gentiles are the sons of Ham, Egyptians, Libyans, Philistines, Canaanites and others, with Nimrod, who founded the city of Babylon, and built Nineveh, being the most famous.

The sons of Japheth are Germans, Turks, Russians, British, basically all Europeans.

Again, read Genesis 10 to see how the world was populated. If you just read it you will have some points of reference in your head which will pop up as you study Scripture. If you are meticulous and like this kind stuff it is delightful.

So then, these Greeks, who are Gentiles, are likely proselytes or folks who are embracing Judaism. Having heard of the resurrection of Lazarus, or upon seeing Jesus’ triumphal entry, they approached Philip. Politely they asked, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

One reason they may have come to Philip is that his name is Greek, meaning lover of horses. It is also possible that they lived in Syrophoenicia, which is close to Philip’s home town near the Sea of Galilee, and so felt more comfortable around him. This is speculation of course, but why mention Bethsaida at all (John 12:21)?

Bethsaida means, house of fishing or house of hunting, but since it is located on the north end of the Sea of Galilee and because Peter and Andrew were fishermen, it is likely that the meaning is house of fishing.

“The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.” John 1:43-44.

“Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus.” John 12:22.

One possible reason Philip went to Andrew first is that the Lord at one time told the disciples not to go to Gentiles but to the house of Israel only.

For this reason he might have been unsure as to how to proceed and sought Andrew’s advice.

It should be added that there was an extreme prejudice toward the Gentiles by the Jews, which would have confused these men even more concerning what they should do.

“These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: ‘Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matthew 10:5-6.

In the account of the Syrophoenician woman who came to Jesus to implore Him to heal her daughter, whom He did heal at the end of the passage; He said the following.

“But He answered and said, ‘I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’” Matthew 15:24.

A study on the Syrophoenician woman was published on 9-7-15, titled “Faith and Humility” if you would like to know more about this incident.

The important thing about the above verses is that it is not because Jesus was prejudiced against the Gentiles; His primary focus was to present Himself to the Jews as their King, which is why He sent the disciples to Jews only.

In fact after His resurrection some of His last instructions to His disciples were to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” Matthew 28:19a.

“But Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.’” John 12:23.

Having reported to Jesus about the Greeks, the Lord does not seem to hear them because it says “But Jesus”; it is as if He began talking about something else.

However He has not really departed from the subject, but is telling the disciples that He is not about to establish His kingdom which would be worldwide, rather that He is about to die.

These Greeks are a type of the Gentiles in that soon the Gentiles would embrace Christianity while the Jews had rejected their Messiah.

“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.” John 12:24.

If you hold a grain of wheat, you could eat it, but it would satisfy nothing; however if you plant the same grain it would die, but miraculously it produces an abundance of grain.

The life of Christ would do little more than reveal God to mankind, and as the liberal theologians like to say, He would be an example to us all how to live, and be happy.

But without the death of Jesus Christ there would be no reason to live at all, in fact, life would be hopeless no matter how much we emulated His life.

The death of this grain of wheat (Jesus) did not just produce the church; He died for the sin of all of mankind. The crop that came from His death, and resurrection, included the souls of Adam and Eve, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses and all who died in faith.

The death of Christ vindicated all who did and will put their faith in Christ as the complete and only payment for their sin. Apart from Christ, there is no hope of working your way to heaven. There are no good works that approach the value of the blood of Christ in paying for your sin.

“He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 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.” John 12:25-26.

Many people love the world and its amusements so much that they will not risk losing them and reject Christ as their savior, forfeiting eternal life in heaven.

While hate is a very strong word, Jesus uses it in contrast to love for Him; meaning that if your love for Him does not make the things of this world seem as if you hate them, then you do not love Him. But before you run with this, read on for a clearer understanding of this contrast.

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.’ And ‘a man’s foes will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” Matthew 10:34-40.

Christ’s intent here is not to say that He approves of warfare nor intends to take peace from us or the earth. Rather that it is the inevitable truth that accepting Christ as your savior will bring enmity between you and the world of unbelievers, whether family or society.

Yet He says that He has come to set a man against his son or mother against daughter. This implies that a decision has to be made; do you please your wife, son, daughter, mother, or even your circle of friends, or do you please Christ?

You may love any of these with all your heart, but you must choose. Your friends will shun you or call you a fool, you may lose them altogether. Your wife may fear loss of her social position if you become a Christian; what will you choose? What is more important, your inner circle, whomever it is made up of, or eternal life?

Will you love Christ enough to risk having everyone hate you, or do you love them too much to let them go? You love them all dearly; yet it is reckoned as hate by all, that you did not love them enough.

“Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you. And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.” Luke 6:22-23.

“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” Mark 8:34b-37.

Those who will follow Christ are asked to deny themselves, this implies sacrifice, forgetting your own goals in life and seeking the Lord’s will for you.

This denying also means turning away from sinful habits and even company who continually lead you into sin. So the Christian life is not just accepting Christ and returning to the same lifestyle you have always led; there will always be some changes, even if it is just a few. By changes, I do not mean divorcing your spouse because she is not a Christian, or browbeating your children until they accept Christ.

Often changes like this entail giving your family the gospel and then living it out before them. You may even find this, living it out before your family, an act of denying self.

Most of us have this Christlike persona that we show the outside world, but it is hard to live this out 24 hours a day. As a result, it is nice to arrive home, take the girdle off and flop into a chair.

This is where the family will see the hypocrisy in you. It is a good thing not to use profanity in public again, it is good not to smoke or drink in public again, but do not chastise anyone for it if you still do it in private.

Do be kind, good, circumspect, helpful and loving; but do not go home and abuse your family. If you cannot treat them any better than you do those at church, then you need to take a time out and re-examine your priorities.

The Apostle Paul wrestled with his own sinful thoughts and acts that even a mature Christian can still have. Some of the results are in the two passages below, and notice that he uses the word hate too which has the same meaning in all of these verses.

“For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” Romans 7:15.

“For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” Romans 7:22-25.

A little advice: it is imperative that you be good in public, and it is imperative that you be good at home; but do not be too good, hypocrisy will wear you out. Christ will change you until more and more good comes out of you automatically.

Another thing you should be sure not to do is think that God is calling you to be a missionary while your family is not saved, you cannot leave them, nor should you drag them along with you to some place they will hate.

This is a misuse of Scripture, but I like to take the last sentence in Mark 8:36 quoted earlier and rephrase it in this manner: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own family?”

When Christ says whoever will save his life will lose it and whoever will lose his life will save it; it is not so much in the sense of life and death, rather it is a question of whether you are willing to give it up.

Those who would save their lives are folks who want everything they think they have coming in this life. There is fame, there is power as a president, senator, or congressman, and there is money in oil, the stock market, or big business.

In fact there is potential in all of us, even if we just sit in front of the television, drink beer and yell at the wife. We can dream can we not?

Thirty years ago rich men were millionaires, today; they are billionaires; not just billionaires, but hundreds of billions of dollars; inconceivable numbers.

But they all have one thing in common with the man on the street; they have been allotted 70 or 80 years on this earth, sometimes more but there is a limit.

They have saved their life but without Christ they will lose it and go into hell in total obscurity and poverty.

The call here is not that they give up their money; the call is for men to give up their pride, acknowledge their sin, and accept Christ as their savior.

A Christian who dies in a gutter is far richer than all of them together.

“Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:37.

“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.” John 12:26.

The Hour Has Come, John 12:20-26 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 2-6-13, updated on 12-20-17.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.