“Father, The Hour Has Come.”

John 17:1-5

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,
as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth.
I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.
And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

If any part of scripture has had a profound influence on my life, it must surely be John 17. It is a chapter I have turned to again and again — and I believe will continue so to do. The first verse shows us the fifth and final time in John’s Gospel that Jesus tells us that the hour has come.

1. 12:23 But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.
2. 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
3. 16:21 A woman, when she is in labour, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
4. 16:32 Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
5. 17:1 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,

On each occasion, Jesus links the hour that has come, to The Father and to His purpose. Furthermore, on the first and second occasions, the emphasis is on Jesus Himself — the third time, He is explaining this to the Disciples, that they (and we) may better understand what is happening — then on the fourth and fifth occasions the emphasis is on Father God. In these five verses Jesus gently leads us step-by-step in our approach to a deeper faith, a higher calling; into the heart of faith. Furthermore, each episode speaks clearly of new life — everlasting life in Jesus.

The hour is coming, yes, has now come. We are used to hearing that this walk of faith is a ‘now’ thing. No use dwelling on the past, whether glorious or otherwise. No point in speculating on what is to come. It will be what it will be, and we must trust in Him for our security, believe that He will honour His promises. The time is coming; this we know, and yet it has already come: that is the nature of God and His heavenly realms, for He is not governed by time as we are.

What we can infer from Jesus’ statement “Father, the hour has come” is that — if we are one with Jesus — we shall be among those in Jesus’ company so that He should give eternal life to as many as [The Father] have given Him. “The hour has come” is everlasting life, and it is not eternal life hereafter, but available in the here and now. Hallelujah!

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Meditate On These Things

MARK 14:41-42 — JESUS GIVES US A WAKE-UP CALL…
Then He came the third time and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough! The hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand."

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THE HOUR HAS COME — Jeff Byers (and featuring Matt Newton)

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A HOLY COMMAND: Oswald Chambers on LOVE
— Love with all your STRENGTH --

"IF ONLY GOD would leave me alone!" men are apt to cry. God never will. His passionate, inexorable love never allows Him to leave men alone, and with His children He will shake everything that can be shaken till nothing more can be shaken; then will abide the consuming fire of God until the life is changed into the same image from glory to glory.
[from ‘Our Brilliant Heritage’]

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