Father God had just publically announced His intention to glorify His Name: an audible voice was heard (John 12:29).  Jesus did not need to hear it for Himself because He knew His Father’s will, but the people needed to know that God was about to work remarkably in human history.  They did not yet understand what would happen at the cross and be validated by the resurrection.  

The cross would show how much God hated the sin of the world, and yet loved the world so much that He was willing to accept responsibility for human sin (John 3:16).  The resurrection would prove that Jesus’ sacrifice was accepted as a full atonement for human sin and that Satan’s authority over the world was broken.  For the second time in this Gospel (John 3:14-15), Jesus said His crucifixion would be like Moses lifting a bronze snake on a pole. In Numbers 21:4-9, rebellious people were punished by being bitten by deadly snakes.  When Moses confessed the people’s sins, God told him to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole, so that everybody who looked at the snake would be healed and forgiven.  Jesus used that event to explain that everybody who looks to Him, as the sin-bearer, would be forgiven and restored to relationship with God.  

But still the people could not accept it … to be ‘lifted up’ meant crucifixion; but surely the Christ could not die because Scriptures say He will live for ever (Isaiah 9:7).  They ignored the prophetic meaning of Lazarus’ resurrection in John 11:43-44: it was not until the Holy Spirit came that they could understand that Jesus would die, bearing the sins of the world, and then be raised to life for evermore.
 
We have less excuse.  We know what Jesus said and how it all came together, because we live after the events and have reliable documents to inform us.  But it takes more than facts and logic.  It takes faith.  We can only be committed believers in Jesus because the Holy Spirit has helped us understand what otherwise seems impossible.  The same is true about our confident expectation of the return of Jesus Christ.  We have no experience of that momentous day but we have heard or read the Bible’s promises and the Holy Spirit has made it real to our hearts.  Faith comes from hearing the message and believing it is the Word of Christ.  And that is how our friends and colleagues will also grasp the truth about Jesus and come to put their trust in Him.  Our task is to provide the information and point people to Jesus; and the Holy Spirit will help them to understand and believe.