In this live men’s Bible study, Dan Willis walks through John 12:1‑26, beginning with a prayer that asks listeners to set aside daily troubles and focus on God’s word. He reads the passage from the ESV, highlighting the context of the six days before Passover when Jesus visits Bethany, where Lazarus—whom He raised from the dead—was present. Willis explains the scene of Mary anointing Jesus’s feet with expensive nard, using vivid imagery of dirty sandals and her hair to illustrate her devotion, and contrasts it with Judas’s criticism, noting Judas’s selfish motive as the keeper of the money bag. He recounts the crowd’s reaction, the chief priests’ plot to kill Lazarus, and the subsequent triumphal entry into Jerusalem with palm branches and the fulfillment of prophecy. Willis points out the presence of Greeks seeking Jesus, showing the gospel’s reach beyond Jews. He then expounds Jesus’s teaching about a grain of wheat that must die to bear fruit, the call to love and even hate one’s own life for eternal life, and the requirement to follow and serve Him. Throughout, Willis draws practical application: celebrating the abundant life found in Christ, recognizing the contagious nature of genuine devotion, and distinguishing true worship from social‑justice motives. He encourages listeners to engage via chat, answer questions posted in the video description, and promises regular nightly livestreams with occasional worship, inviting ongoing community participation.
Chapters
All right, here we go. We are live. Hopefully the audio is working well and everything is going smoothly. It looks pretty smooth on this end, so we'll see how that goes. But, uh, yeah, so let's go. Hopefully you guys have your Bible handy. If you don't have your Bible handy, go ahead and grab one. Uh, we are continuing through John. Uh, we're gonna finish up that last little bit on Lazarus, and we're gonna tackle a little bit of the triumphant entry today. So, uh, if you don't have your Bible, that's okay. I'm gonna read from the ESV. Uh, if you do read from the Bible, go ahead and grab your copy, and away we go. All right, so we are at John 12. Uh, so we'll start at verse 1 and we'll go through until We'll go through until 26 today, so John 12, uh, 1 through 26. Let's see what we got. Uh, we'll pray before we get going. Lord, thank you so much for this time. Thank you so much for tonight. Uh, I pray for all the men that are able to gather, just that we'd be able to look at your word, leave the, the troubles of, of the day, the troubles of our lives behind us, those trials just apart for a time so we can come to your word, just reason it out, wrestle it out. really come to hear what you have to say to us, and that we might be able to walk away from this renewed, closer to you, and applying these things into our lives. In your name we pray. Okay, so what we've got is, um, let's go with 6 days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany. Where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at the table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. Okay, uh, just a quick note on that. Picture the environment, okay? This is not wiping feet like We have today in North America where, okay, you take off your shoes, take off the socks, and then they're wiping the feet, right? Picture instead a guy who has been walking in dirty, crap-filled roads in thong sandals, okay? Like, these feet are crusted, crusted in, in sand, dirt, blood, sweat, likely animal feces. And here is this woman who, for all Purposes, let's say, is a gorgeous woman using her hair to wipe his feet clean. Okay. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume, but Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him— so again, we know what's about to happen there. They're the spoilers, not me. Um, said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii? And given to the poor. He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put in it. Okay, so this is not— this is not great altruistic Judas saying, oh, we could have saved the poor with this money. Guys, guys, skimming on the side. Okay, um, Jesus said, leave her alone. So so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you will have always with you, but you do not always have me. When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel! And Jesus found a young donkey, sat on it, just as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion! Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him. And had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip went to— went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Okay, so a couple of different things here. Okay, so we have Lazarus, right? We had Lazarus happening. Jesus brings him back from the dead. We then have Mary humbling herself, willing to give things of great value just to give Christ that recognition, that, that love, that, that passion while she can. We've got Judas showing his true colors. We've got— so like, that's a big section. People's hearts are coming out. People are starting to show who they truly are through their actions, through their deeds. You see Judas letting his heart be known. He's for himself. Even when he seems like he's not for himself, he's for himself. We see Mary for Christ wholeheartedly, wholeheartedly to her own detriment, wholeheartedly for Christ. We see Lazarus, his very existence that Christ has given him life from death as being a threat to those who don't want Christ to be known, right? Just existing in a life with Christ is enough for people to decry you, for people to call out against you. We see that with Judas calling out Mary. We see that with the Jews coming to want to kill Lazarus and Jesus. We see the Pharisees mocking Jesus. It is this constant thing. It's constant. It's over and over and over again. And yet, just the presence, just us celebrating our life, celebrating that we are alive, we know Christ, we have that life with him, we have life abundant with him. Yeah, there's going to be those who chirp from the crowds, there's going to be those who chirp from the stands and tell you, you shouldn't do that, you're wrong, that's not right, do this, do that. Great. Look to Christ over and over and over again. Look to Christ. Did Mary care what Judas had to say? No. Well, I really think that you should be doing this because that's what social justice says that you should do. We should take care of the poor. Okay, but I, I'm taking care of Jesus right now. My focus is on Jesus right now. Is there a time for social justice? Absolutely. Is it right now when I'm doing this thing for Christ? Absolutely not. What did Jesus have to say on it? She's fine. She's doing what she's supposed to be doing. Lazarus, just existing. I'm here. I'm alive. What, like, what do you want me to do about that? You want You want— you'd rather I die and go back in the tomb? No, I'm here. And he's looking at Jesus, and Jesus is like, yeah, like, I rose you from the dead. You're supposed to be here. Those that followed to Jerusalem singing Hosanna, the Pharisees are not big fans of this, and Jesus has nothing to say to them other than, whatever you're on, it, it's not working. It's not playing. This isn't happening. People are doing the thing that they're supposed to do. That's what's going to happen. You can like it and get on board, or you can chirp from the crowds. And I mean, you'll be written down in the Book of Life forever as the ones that chirped. But for those that are pursuing Christ, it's contagious, and contagious to the point of not just in the circles of people that we surround ourselves with, but outside those circles as well. You have Greeks, people that aren't Jews, wanting to come and see Jesus. This is, this is not the norm. This is not like, oh, you know, we'll, we'll go check this out. This is a societal barrier that you would not leap. There were messiahs that came regularly, people claiming, I'm the Messiah, I'm the— I got— it's a regular occurrence. Jesus was something different. He stood out. He stood out in a big way. And his followers, the people that he touched, the lives that he served, those people spoke loudly enough— just some of them by their existence, some of them by their verbal words, some of them by their actions— but they spoke loudly enough that those who never would have associated with the Jews before this opt and choose to go and pursue Christ, to seek him out, and to be a part of him. And Jesus's response to that: if anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am There will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Greek, Jew, doesn't matter. Mary, adulteress in her past life, doesn't matter. Andrew, Philip, follow, fantastic. Lazarus follows, fantastic. Like, you show up, you seek Christ, you walk with him, you do what he's got, you celebrate that life. It's contagious. It catches people on fire. The caveat: Romans 3:23. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You're not going to be perfect, and that's not a requirement. What is required is that you look to Christ and you follow him. Follow him and celebrate the life you've been given. So hopefully that's helpful for you guys that are watching. For those of you guys that come in, uh, tomorrow or later, there are some questions down below in the description. So feel free, if you want to do a little bit extra here, pop down in there, ask, answer the questions, throw those in chat, in the comment below. If you like these guys, I am going to try Monday through Friday, at least for the foreseeable future, to be here 8 o'clock every night Eastern Standard Time and knock this out. So could be 10 minutes, could be 15 minutes. Occasionally I may put in some worship as well, so we'll see how that goes. If there are more people live on chat when we're doing this, I may do some Q&A. We may have some conversation live here, but let me know in the comments below. Answer to the questions that are in the description. Hopefully I'll see more of you guys live as we continue to do this. Have a great night, guys. Celebrate life. Life abundant. Take it easy.
