John 12:14-25

¹⁴When Jesus came near to Jerusalem, he got a young donkey and sat on it as he rode into the city. By doing this, he fulfilled what had been written {what a prophet had written} in Scripture,

¹⁵You people of Jerusalem, do not be afraid! Look! Your king is coming! He is riding on a donkey's colt!

¹⁶At first we disciples did not understand those things. But after Jesus had returned to heaven, we realized that those things had been written {that a prophet had written those things} about him, and that by doing those things for him the people had fulfilled what the prophet prophesied.

¹⁷The crowd that was with him continued to tell other people that he called Lazarus to come out of the tomb, and that Lazarus had then become alive again.

¹⁸Because of that, many people, because they heard others say that he had performed this miracle, went to meet him.

¹⁹So the Pharisees said to each other, “It is obvious that we are making no progress in trying to stop him! It looks like HYP everyone MTY is becoming his disciple!”

²⁰Among those who went up to Jerusalem to worship God during the Passover celebration were some Greeks.

²¹They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida town in Galilee province. They wanted him to do something for them. They said, “Sir, we would like to talk with Jesus.”

²²So after Philip went and told that to Andrew, they both went and told Jesus.

²³Then, to show them that he must die in order to give eternal life to non-Jews like those Greeks, Jesus replied to them, “It is time for God to honor me, the one who came from heaven. That will happen when I die.

²⁴Listen to this carefully: My life is like a seed MET. If someone does not plant a kernel of grain in the ground, it does not change. It remains only one seed. But if it changes after it is planted in the ground, it will grow and produce many seeds.

²⁵Anyone who strongly wants to keep on living here on earth will surely lose his life forever. But anyone who is willing to die HYP for my sake will surely gain eternal life.