12:29,30
The voice from heaven was for the benefit of the crowd, not Jesus. The struggle within Jesus was real, but so was His absolute commitment to the Father and to the plan. He knew what the truth was. The crowd did not really know what they had heard. Some thought it had thundered, others thought it was the voice of an angel.
12:31
The world thought it was getting rid of Jesus, casting its judgement upon Him. In fact it was the world that was being judged. The cross was God’s verdict upon the world, the judgement that Jesus received was the judgement that we deserved. At the same time Satan’s hold on the world was being broken. Satan only has influence upon the world because of our sin. It was our sin that opened the way for him to come in. We have an option. If we live in sin we are subject to the devil and to his rule, but if we repent and believe in Jesus then we are subject to Him and we receive new life.
12:32,33
“When I am lifted up”. John makes it clear that Jesus was speaking about His death here, though it could be taken as referring also to His resurrection and ascension as well. “Will draw all people to myself”. There is a popular saying of “all means all”, commonly used by preachers. Well sometimes all means all, and sometimes it doesn’t! Sometimes it means “all kinds”, and that is what it means here. Clearly not all people were drawn to Jesus, and other sayings of Jesus and teaching in the New Testament, show that Jesus never expected absolutely everyone to be drawn to Him, but He did expect people from all nations to be drawn to Him, and this ties these words into the introduction to this section where some Greeks were wanting to meet Him.
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